Mango Island Kids: Christmas Chronicles DX
by TMan5636
Summary: A remake of my 2013 Christmas Fan-fiction. Santa Claus has been kidnapped and it is up to six young children to travel to the icy castle on Freezer Mountain to rescue him and save Christmas. Contains several crossover characters and the six main characters are OCs of mine. Enjoy! Contains extra scenes, fixed errors and a new chapter all together.
1. Winter Express

**Chapter 1: The Winter Express**

* * *

" _Dear Teo, how are you? This may be a surprise to you, but I am the one and only Santa Claus, I know you've been a very good boy every year and I try my best to give you the best presents, but sadly I might not be able to give you any this year, or to anyone. You see, some very bad men who call themselves the Evil Buddies have captured me and has me locked in a castle on Freezer Mountain, I am requesting your help to come to Freezer Mountain and save me from them, your courage and kindness should be more than enough to help me. To get there, take the nearest train to Shiver Town, the mayor of that little town will help you find a way to the Mountain. I wish you the best of luck. I have enclosed six train tickets to get you to Shiver Town._

 _Yours truly. Santa Claus."_

It was only a week until Christmas truly starts, we find Teo at the train station wearing a thick orange coat, a woolly hat and scarf with thick mittens, layered trousers and big boots, he was well padded for the winter, but his tail felt messed up in the thickness of the coat and trousers, next to him was a small bag, but all it had was his best friend, his stuffed rabbit named Baby Bunny. He looked closely at the letter seeing six tickets attached at the bottom. Curious as to how Santa could deliver this while being captured, but he knew he had to help regardless. Even if it was a hoax, it was better than going back to the shivering cold orphanage.

"You better be right about this!" scolded his girlfriend, Bowla, looking frustrated. She wore similar winter clothing to Teo, but her coat was green and was quite thinner than his. "I had to do a heck of a lot of convincing to get Daddy to let me join you, you better appreciate it."

"I-I do but… you wanted to come along, I never asked." said Teo feeling a bit nervous, he personally wanted to do this alone. But Bowla wanted to come too, as well as four more. Mike, his biggest bully, Jack, Mike's best friend, Samantha, gluttonous and somewhat annoying, and Sabrina, Teo's best friend, were there also, wearing the same type of winter clothing but thinner than Teo's. Mike wore black, Jack wore grey, Samantha wore purple and Sabrina wore blue. All of them also had small bags like Teo.

"And why should you get to see Santa?" asked Mike crossing his arms. "No one deserves to see Santa more than good ol' me!"

"I completely agree." said Jack as he fixed his glasses, everyone besides Mike knew Jack was just kissing up. "He's made the orphanage a better place with his authority."

"Well I heard that Santa has so many sweets and chocolates! I just HAVE to come!" said Samantha with glee.

"S-Surely you've been… paying attention, right?" said Teo nervously. "The letter said we're going to Freezer Mountain to save him. So, he may not have anything to give us at all when we get there."

"Yeah?" said Bowla tilting her head a bit. "But I'm not gonna stay put while you go meet him, so I'm coming too whether you like it or not."

"In addition, you are going to require my assistance nevertheless." said Sabrina looking emotionless as usual. "My intellect recognises no real-world boundaries… in addition, you have six tickets and there are six of us." she then turns to Mike, Jack and Samantha. "Though for the life of me I do not comprehend why you approved of these idiots to accompany you."

"I hate to break it to you, but I'M the smartest one here." said the annoyed looking Jack. Sabrina simply looked away scoffing, which only aggravated Jack more.

' _They're ignoring that we could be risking our lives to save Christmas, this isn't just a trip to see Santa, this is a mission to save him._ ' Thought Teo looking concerned. But he also had a bit of confidence, Teo's cat-like reflexes have more often than not helped him out in several situations, Bowla has the power to breathe fire making her the cold's worst nightmare and Sabrina is incredibly smart in several factors and is excellent at deceiving people. Both Mike and Samantha are strong, but they would often get misguided, and while Jack is also smart, he has trouble making decisions for himself.

Soon enough, a loud rumbling sound occurred as the train arrived at the station, the train was a shiny deep green colour, polished and quite rich looking, well decorated for the season as well with all sorts of pictures of tinsel, lights and several other Christmas themes. As the train slowly stopped, Teo looked at the train and the tickets he had, both having the same emblem implying this was their train.

Teo slowly walked forward to one of the doors and it opened, revealing the conductor who looked down on the kids. "Tickets please." Teo pulled the six tickets off and handed them to the conductor who gave them a quick look, his eyes then widened. "My word."

"What is it?" asked Jack looking concerned. "Are they fake?"

"No, these are the special limited tickets." said the conductor. "Having these not only gives you access to our luxury train, but it's all-expense-paid."

"Wait! So, everything we order on this train is free!?" asked Bowla in shock. "Because of those tickets?" Everyone else looked surprised.

"Sure right." Said the conductor smiling. "Lucky you. Three days of our beautiful warm ride and everything will be free"

"W-Wow." said Teo feeling pleased. "B-But… we shouldn't take advantage of it-"

"Are you crazy Teo?" shouted Bowla as she shook Teo around. "Let's have some fun!"

With that, the five dashed into the train leaving the dizzy Teo behind, he then slowly walks into the train after taking back the tickets. After a few minutes, the train doors closed and began to leave the station.

Little did any of them know however, a small silver fly snuck its way in through the doors before they shut.

* * *

The gang were in Room Five of the eight rooms, their room was quite large having two bunk beds and two large couches facing one another and a large window in the middle of it all, Teo, Bowla and Sabrina sat on one whereas Mike, Jack and Samantha sat on the other, all six of them had removed their winter clothing and were now seen in their casual clothing, Teo felt relieved to free his tail as it swished slowly getting more comfortable.

The train was really warm to battle the bitter cold outside, giving off a very cosy feel; it made them feel more comfortable seeing the snow fall from outside the train giving them a very relaxing rocking sensation. Three days of this was going to be paradise, while Teo felt relaxed, he also felt a tense vibe, knowing once they get out of the train and into Shiver Town, the trials were going to truly begin.

"This is awesome!" shouted Mike. "Three days of this non-stop and we are living like kings and queens!"

"It's amazing Santa was kind enough to give us these tickets, so we can see him." said Jack fixing his glasses once again.

"I bet he'll have lots of sweets and cakes and all that!" said Samantha swaying left and right. "Oh! I can't wait!"

"This is almost as luxurious as my home." said Bowla as she leaned back.

Sabrina was silent as usual, she simply looked out the window watching the falling snow and the white fields and trees speed by. She couldn't help but let out a small smile, the scenery outside was just amazing.

Teo turned to see the beautifully decorated room and seeing everyone relaxed, Teo felt as if Mike wouldn't bully him since he's so relaxed and may take advantage of the free stuff, but Teo wouldn't bet on it. Soon he noticed something; on the floor just by their door was a slip of paper. Teo jumped off the seat and walked up to the paper, out of curiosity, the others got off their seats to look over his shoulder as he read the note.

"I know you're trying to save Santa Claus, get off the train now or an explosive fate awaits you!" Jack read aloud.

"Explosive?!" exclaimed Bowla.

"Looks like these um… E-Evil Buddies know we're coming." muttered Teo in a shy tone. "I… I think I need to show this to someone important."

"We had best be cautious however." said Sabrina with a serious look to her face. "Anyone on this train could be in allegiance with the malefactor."

Teo placed the note in his pocket and opened the door to see the hallway where Rooms Five, Four and Three were. The hallways had a beautiful red floral pattern with the enjoyable rocking sensation of the train travelling across the tracks, Teo walked to his left to another door going to another train carriage, the others soon followed knowing the next carriage was the restaurant room.

The next room had large windows, so the beautiful scenery was still visible, a few tables with white sheets over them and from five to six chairs near each table, the carpet was a nice soft yellow and there was even a nearby souvenir shop and a little kitchen. There they saw a young sixteen-year-old girl with short blonde hair in the shape of devil horns, red eyes and had a cute waitress outfit, the girl seemed intimidating, but the outfit is a different story.

As Teo passed the restaurant and was about to go to the door to the next carriage, he looked behind him to see the others had made themselves at one of the tables. Teo sighs and walks back to them. "I thought we were gonna tell someone about the note." he muttered.

"C'mon dummy." Said Mike getting his cutlery. "Even heroes like me gotta eat."

"Why not join us for some brunch at least Teo." said Bowla, ignoring Mike. "You must be hungry."

"It may well be a wiser conclusion to act unpremeditated nevertheless." said Sabrina looking calm. "Disregarding the message could enable us to pinpoint the committer, for the reason that he or she will conceivably become irritated by our obliviousness and act inappropriate, we could pinpoint him or her in a more effective method just by investigating any signs of out-of-characteristics."

Everyone was silent, Teo almost understood Sabrina, keyword: Almost.

"Run that by me again, and this time could you speak like a normal girl?" asked Mike scratching his head.

Sabrina places her head on the table sighing in frustration. "Just forget it."

"Well… I am a little hungry." said Teo feeling a bit shy as usual.

"As if you're allowed to have anything on this train." said Mike with a big grin. "Why should someone like you get what they want?"

"Because if he doesn't then I'm gonna burn you to a crisp and throw you out the window!" Bowla threatened with traces of fire spewing from her mouth.

Mike was scared at first, but soon he smiled nervously. "T-Then again everything IS free so."

' _He may be the rooster of the orphanage but he's really a big fat chicken._ ' thought Teo. With that he then sat on one of the chairs at the table and looked at the menu. He then faced Bowla feeling embarrassed. "Um… I forgot I can't read. C-Could you… um… help me?"

"Sure thing." said Bowla as she shared the menu with Teo. Mike and Jack did the same as Mike cannot read either, the only orphan who could read was Jack because he studied himself. Bowla, Sabrina and Samantha have parents who taught them.

Soon, the young waitress walked up to their table with a bored uncaring look in her eyes. "Can I take your order?" she asked with so little enthusiasm.

"Me and Jack will have steaks!" said Mike answering for his friend.

"I'll have the lasagne." said Bowla. "And Teo here will have the fish surprise."

"I-If that's alright" said Teo shyly.

"The chicken and egg-fried rice sounds enjoyable." said Sabrina pulling a small smirk.

"I'll have the big-bang fry-ups, the steak and kidney pie extra-large, the big-time turkey dinner and seven deluxe pizza sandwiches." said Samantha; the waitress looked at her surprised.

"Tch, kids these days." The girl muttered as she wrote down everyone's orders. "Is that everything?" everyone nodded, with that she made her way to the kitchen which was really just an open area with the many necessary devices and equipment for cooking, but only had one chef.

"Mama-mia!" said the chef, being a mid-thirties man wearing a chef-hat and a green apron with an 'L' on it and a big bushy moustache under his large nose. "Is this really what they all want, Mandy?"

"Believe it Luigi." said the waitress apparently named Mandy.

* * *

About an hour later, Teo, Bowla, Mike, Jack, Samantha and Sabrina finished their brunches, all feeling satisfied with the five-star cooking. "Fish…" mumbled Teo with contentment.

"Was everything to your liking?" asked chef Luigi who had just walked up to them with Mandy the waitress.

"Better than the chefs back home." said Bowla before giving a loud belch.

"I have a wishful desire to dine here every day." said Sabrina placing her cutlery onto the plate in a cross-like fashion

"Fantastic!" said Mike sticking his thumbs up.

"Perfect in every way" said Jack fixing his glasses.

"Got any ice cream?" asked Samantha surprising the others.

"I'm sure I can provide you with some little lady." chuckled Luigi.

"I think she's had enough, she already had four extra-large courses." said Mandy raising an eyebrow. "And she's anything but little."

"Oh, don't be a stick in the mud." said Luigi looking cheerful as he rubbed Mandy's head. "At least you don't have to cook them." Mandy rolled her eyes as Luigi made his way to the kitchen to make some ice cream for Samantha.

"Well… I better go tell someone about the note." said Teo as he jumps off his chair and makes his way to the door leading to the next carriage. Mandy looked at Teo with a raised eyebrow.

The next carriage had beautiful blue flora patterns across the walls and had Rooms Six, Seven and Eight. But right at the end was the conductor who stood by another door leading to the last carriage, Teo was very hesitant at first, but he slowly walked up to the conductor and took out the note.

"Oh, hello there, young lad." said the conductor with a cheerful smile. "You're Teo from Room Five, yes?"

"I… I am." said Teo sounding shy to talk to someone new. "Um… I was wondering if you could… um help me with something."

"What is it?" asked the conductor.

Teo handed the conductor the note. "S-Someone left this threat note in my room."

"An... e-explosive threat?!" asked the conductor in horror after reading it. "O-Oh my! That's pretty serious. Don't worry lad, I'll get into this as quickly as possible, why not return to your room at the time." Teo nodded and made his way back to the door he came through.

Meanwhile, we find Bowla, Mike, Jack and Sabrina in the little souvenir shop looking at all the unusual train or Christmas related knickknacks. "Hope you find something good." said the shop keep, who was a sixty-year-old man with thick square glasses, wore a black suit and had a red fez while holding a cane with a black 8-Ball on it. "And as Grunkle Stan always says - which is me - We put the Fun in No Refunds."

Sabrina turned to Stan with a smirk. "Our tickets are all expense-paid. So, wouldn't that imply we are permitted to obtain everything here for free?" Stan frowned looking annoyed.

"SWEET!" shouted Mike as he lunged forward getting ready to grab everything, but that was until Stan smacked his cane across Mike's hands sending him back.

"Not so fast kids. It's all-expense-paid yes… but for my store only, its two items per person, any more and then you have to pay."

"Oh… well that stinks!" said Mike looking annoyed as he rubbed his hand. "So much for everything's free."

"Hey, I gotta make a business here." said Stan, "So either get something or scram."

"My daddy could get him whacked." grumbled Bowla crossing her arms.

"Yeah, well he is absent from this train." said Sabrina, she looked in the top right corner of the shelves and noticed a small TV. She then pointed to it. "Is that for purchasing?"

Stan looked to where she was pointing. "The TV? Yep. Comes with a little plastic duck too."

"That's all I would like to know." Sabrina then faced Mike. "I require you to transport that for me."

"Forget it! You still owe me 20p for the last thing I had to lug around for you!"

"And I told you I had my fingers crossed. So, I don't actually owe you anything."

"Well then look for someone else to do the heavy lifting! And don't even try that brain-mumbo-jumbo-trickery-thingy you do because I'm keeping my foot down!"

"It's called deception, and fine. Wasting my breath on you is meaningless." Sabrina responded feeling annoyed.

"I don't even want your breath anyway." Mike responded, Sabrina simply rolled her eyes.

As Teo went back into the restaurant carriage, Sabrina exited the shop; there the two noticed there were quite a few people surrounding the kitchen area, like there was a commotion. So, the two immediately walked up to the others to see what was going on. The crowd consisted of Samantha, the chef Luigi, Mandy the waitress, and three new faces.

One was a teenager wearing a red jacket with a red cap with black hair and blinding shiny teeth, blue jeans and red shoes. One was tall and thin wearing a beige coat and fedora, black trousers and long brown shoes. And the last one was a real surprise, a tall blue humanoid shark, his top fin was covered in a gold metal shaped like spikes, he wore a black jacket over a black shirt and wore white trousers and held a small cane.

' _And I thought I was the only half-animal here._ ' thought Teo looking surprised.

"So, it appears that we have a very interesting mystery to say the least." said the tall man with a very strange voice as he rubbed his chin. "Chef Luigi's three frying pans have all disappeared so suddenly."

"Indeed, they were here just a second ago." said Luigi looking concerned.

' _All this happened in the span of two minutes?! Not even that?!_ ' thought Teo looking even more surprised.

"So, what are you exactly?" asked Mandy. "Some detective Wannaby?"

"A Wannaby I am not, for I am the real deal. I am known as Inspector Gadget." said the tall man "I'm quite skilled in what I do and that is solving mysteries. This should pose no challenge for me."

"Well then let's hear it!" demanded the humanoid shark with a deep English accent. "I'm starving and I wanna get something to eat!"

"Patience." said Gadget. He began to look around. "So, what happened here is that your frying pans all disappeared while you were looking away, and there were no witnesses?"

"Not one." said Luigi shrugging his shoulders. "I was preparing three of my deluxe pizza sandwiches on them. And now that they're gone with the frying pans."

' _Deluxe pizza sandwiches?_ ' Thought Sabrina tilting her head. ' _That was what Samantha ordered in conjunction with the rest of her nutriment._ ' she walked up to Samantha and pulled her away from the crowd without attracting attention.

"What are you doing?" asked the confused Samantha.

Once the two were at a good enough distance. Sabrina faced Samantha. "Ok, answer my question and be straightforward, you did not pilfer the food and pans, did you?"

"What's pilfer?" asked the confused Samantha.

Sabrina tipped her head down sighing, she then faces Samantha again. "It is another word for steal. Did you steal the food and pans?"

"No…" said Samantha shaking her head. "Of course not."

"C'mon Samantha, you've pilfered food before." said Sabrina raising an eyebrow.

"Well… yeah but I would've left the pans behind." said Samantha shrugging her shoulders with a bit of a nervous smile.

Teo quickly walked up to the two. "Please say you didn't take them, we don't want to cause trouble."

"Speak for yourself, producing trouble is one of my principle responsibilities." said Sabrina with a smirk, Teo faced her looking concerned. "But I did not pilfer those pans either." Sabrina added, realising what Teo might be thinking.

"Look, all I'm saying is that there's no way Mr. Sharpfin here could be the thief, he came into the restaurant with me." said the teenager wearing the red jacket addressing the humanoid shark.

"I see… well if there was a witness to Mr. Sharpfin's innocence then I guess that rules him out as a suspect." said Inspector Gadget rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry about that, but sharks are known for eating a lot."

"I suppose that would make SOME sense." said the humanoid shark named Sharpfin looking annoyed. "But next time get some more evidence rather than pointless accusations!"

Not long later, Bowla, Mike and Jack left the souvenir shop with two knickknacks each. They all noticed the crowd talking and then saw Teo, Samantha and Sabrina near the other side listening to the conversation, so they walked up to them. "What's going on?" asked Bowla.

"Apparently, somebody had pilfered the chef's pans with those pizza sandwiches in them." said Sabrina.

Bowla, Mike and Jack all immediately looked over to Samantha. "I didn't take them!"

"You always steal food Samantha." Said Mike. "What makes this any different?"

"I wasn't hungry." Everyone at that point all looked at Samantha with both disbelief and shock. "Hey, I get full… just not often."

"Excuse me if I don't find that believable." Said Jack raising an eyebrow.

"Even if I did polder the food, I would've left the pans behind." Said Samantha.

"That's PILFER you dunce!" said Sabrina in a slightly louder voice.

"Who pilfered?" the man known as Inspector Gadget walked up to the kids, overhearing Sabrina. But before any could answer, a robotic hand on a metal arm popped out of Gadget's hat holding a magnifying glass and placed it over his right eye to inspect them.

"Ok, how did you do that?" asked Mike looking surprised.

"Mr. Luigi did indeed say that six little kids did eat here earlier, and one of them did have a very big appetite." Said Gadget.

"But I didn't palter them!" said Samantha.

"PIL-FER!" said the aggravated Sabrina. "Seriously! Is it actually that difficult for your inadequate brain to state a simple two-syllable word?!"

Teo took one step back. ' _Wow… Sabrina's almost as scary as Bowla when she gets mad… Almost._ '

"Look Mr Robot-guy, Samantha couldn't have stolen them, if she did, then where are the pans?" asked Jack.

"Dorky here makes a good point for once." Said Bowla making Jack look over to her annoyed.

"Yeah, unless she ate them too." Chuckled Mike.

There was an awkward silence, they soon began to suspect Samantha ate the pans too; she had a big enough mouth.

"Alright, do you seriously believe Samantha would be thoughtless enough to consume metal?" asked Sabrina, she looked over to Samantha again and then back to Gadget. "Ok, do not respond to that."

"Um… Mr um… Robot-guy?" asked Teo feeling shy once more.

"Please call me Gadget."

"S-Sorry… Mr Gadget… what if we found the real thief?"

Inspector Gadget placed the magnifying glass away and rubbed his chin. "Well it would prove the young lady's innocence… ok, but until the real thief has been captured, Samantha will still be the main suspect. As such, she must stay with me until then."

"I just require Samantha for a minute however." Said Sabrina.

"I'm afraid not, she must stay with me."

Sabrina sighed; she needed Samantha to carry the TV for her. "Well… looks like we um… have to help Samantha out here." Said Teo.

"Speak for yourself!" said Mike crossing his arms. "Me and Jack are gonna head back to our room for a nap."

As Mike and Jack began to walk away, Teo turned to Sabrina. "Um… will we need their help?"

"Unquestionably not, the only method those idiots would be beneficial for is enticement or a meat-shield."

"Eh, we can find the thief on our own." Said Bowla smirking. "I mean, there are only so few people on this train, right?"

Sabrina then faced Mike and Jack who were almost out the door. "I mean, it's not like Santa would want to deliver them presents anyway."

Mike and Jack heard this, and the two immediately walked back to the others. "What are you saying Sabrina?" asked Mike with his hands on his hips and a raised eyebrow.

"Santa only bequeaths presents to good boys and girls." Sabrina responded with no reaction to Mike's posture. "I was merely stating how it was impossible for you to begin with… so it was most beneficial you did your own errands rather than pretend to be nice when you still would not receive presents."

"HEY! I'm a really nice guy! Much nicer than you!"

"Yeah flipping right!" Exclaimed Teo surprising the others. "With how often you've bullied me all my life, I wouldn't be surprised if Santa gave you the entire coal factory! And every single coal mine he owns!" There was an awkward silence for a few seconds as Teo calmed down. "S-Sorry…"

Sabrina looks back at Mike with a smirk. "Do you understand Mike, even Teo approves of what I say."

"Look! There's no one who deserves to see Santa more than me! … A-And Jack of course."

"Then demonstrate it. Support Samantha by clearing her accusations with utmost haste."

"Alright we will! C'mon Jack!" with that Mike and Jack walked off towards the third carriage with Rooms Six, Seven and Eight.

Bowla turned to Sabrina. "Did you really want Mike and Jack to help?"

"I had no desire for them to doze off, I desire to observe a fair number of cartoons on that miniature telly and I do not want to keep it inaudible for the sake of those two."

Bowla shrugged her shoulders. "Makes sense."

Teo turned to Samantha. "D-Don't worry, we'll find who really stole those pans."

"Thanks, Teo."

With that; Teo, Bowla and Sabrina began to walk the other way towards the carriage with Rooms Three, Four and Five while Samantha stayed with Inspector Gadget. Samantha soon looked up to him. "Can we get something to eat?"

"I don't see why not."

* * *

In the third carriage, we find Mike and Jack wandering the halls until they reached the door with an eight on it, they checked the other two already and they were empty. The two opened the third door, only to see that it is occupied with three teenage boys.

One was lying on the bed reading a comic book, he was tall with pale yellow skin and a big black unibrow, he wore a green jacket with purple baggy trousers. One was on one of the couches typing on his laptop, he wore a black sock-shaped hat, wore a red t-shirt and purple shorts. The last one had three strands of black hair, wore a yellow t-shirt with a red vertical stripe, and blue trousers, he too was reading a comic book while eating a bag of crisps. The three were oblivious to them for a few seconds until they all turned to Mike and Jack.

"Ever heard of knocking?" asked the three-haired boy with a bored tone to him.

"Um… salutations, my name is Eddward." Said the boy wearing the black hat. "But my friends call me Double D." he then points to the three-haired boy. "This is my friend Eddy." He then points to the yellow skinned boy. "And this is my friend Ed."

"Hey." Said Eddy with the same bored tone.

"HELLO!" said Ed looking jolly.

"Uh… hi." Said Mike feeling a bit awkward, the two-walked in. "Look, we're trying to find someone who stole some pans from the chef."

"Sorry, we saw nothing; we've been here the entire time." Said Eddy as he turned back to his comic book.

Mike smirked and then he pointed. "Well you say you saw nothing. But maybe you were the ones to ta-"

"Uh Mike? They said they've been here the entire time. I don't think they could've stolen them." Interrupted Jack before Mike could embarrass himself.

"Did you talk to Mr Gadget?" asked Edd.

"Yep, and he suspects our fat idiotic friend Samantha." Said Mike shrugging his shoulders.

' _Not sure if calling them fat or idiotic would be friendly._ ' Thought Jack.

Eddy turns to Mike and Jack. "Look we know nothing, but maybe we could help you out if you help us out with something."

Mike was about to say no, but then he remembered what Sabrina said, so he let out a sigh. "What is it?"

"You see, there's this hot chick in Room Two, who said she'll go on a date with me if I figure out what she likes and provide it." Eddy then smirks. "I think you get where I'm going with this right?"

"Eddy, we really shouldn't put your burdens on someone else." Said Edd.

"Hey, it's only fair. They help us, we help them. I don't like to do things that are out of my way for nothing you know."

Edd sighs. "Do you two mind with this task?"

"Well… it's up to Mike really." said Jack fixing his glasses.

"Meh, can't be too hard to know what girls like, right?" said Mike looking smug.

"We'll see what we can do then." said Jack, with that the two left.

As they began to walk back down the hallway to the restaurant carriage, Mike chuckled to himself. "It'll be easy; we've hung around three girls for ages now, so it should be easy knowing what this 'hot chick' like's right?" There was a bit of silence between the two, but then Mike faced Jack losing his smirk. "So, what do girls like?"

"No idea."

* * *

Teo, Bowla and Sabrina were in the next carriage with Rooms Three, Four and Five. The two walked for a bit until Teo stopped looking around. "What's that?"

"What's what?" asked Bowla.

"That smell…"

Sabrina looked around feeling confused. "I cannot distinguish any category of fragrance in the vicinity."

"It… smells warm… like cooking… and kinda greasy…" Teo looked down and went onto one knee looking at the carpet, Bowla and Sabrina did the same thing. They all noticed a darkened bit of the carpet, Teo placed his index finger on it and felt it was warm and wet; he then placed his finger close to his nose sniffing the substance. He then licked it a bit to get a quick taste, after a few seconds, he came to a conclusion. "I think this is the grease from those plates that had Samantha's Pizza Sandwiches in them.

The three stood up. "Wow… how did you know?" asked Bowla.

"I recognised it during lunch; all of the foods had a different scent from one another."

"You know those catlike aptitudes of yours are unquestionably convenient." Said Sabrina with a smirk.

Teo looked carefully at the substance, and realised it acted like a small trail leading towards the door with a three on it. "I think we found the thief."

The three walked up to the door and opened it; there they saw a lone 8ft muscular man wearing a red and black outfit. He sat on the couch looking casual until he noticed the kids. "Ever heard of knocking?" asked the man with a very thick Russian accent. He let out a quiet burp which he quickly put his hand over his mouth. "Excuse me."

Teo and Bowla walked up to the man whereas Sabrina stayed a few steps back. "Um… s-sorry to come in… my name is um… T-Teo."

"I'm Bowla and this is Sabrina."

"Call me Heavy Weapons Guy." Said the tall man. "So, what can I do for you wee tykes?"

"We heard some pans belonging to the chef were stolen recently." Said Bowla looking calm, whereas Teo was very intimidated by the man's height and size.

"And I'm assuming you are accusing me of such crime?" Said the Heavy Weapons Guy looking a little annoyed.

"We saw traces of Pizza Sandwiches on the floor in front of your door." Said Bowla with a big toothy grin.

"There is no proof that was left by me."

"Then what are these?" They all looked towards Sabrina who took out three large pans from the small desk drawer.

The Heavy Weapons Guy let out a slow sigh. "Ok… fine… I did the crime, it was me… but they were so delicious, I just had to have more."

"Um… why didn't you just ask for more instead of stealing?" asked Teo.

"Too expensive, this train was expensive enough." Teo then realised what he meant, he and his friends get all-expense-paid, but everyone else had to pay for everything, he likely didn't have enough money. "Plus, you would not believe how much more I had to pay to have my special baggage in this train too."

The Heavy Weapons Guy points to the opposite couch, there Teo, Bowla and Sabrina saw a massive mini-gun sitting on said couch. Bowla immediately looked excited as she ran up to it. "Oh wow! Now this is a top quality mini-gun!"

"You… know about them?" asked Sabrina feeling a bit concerned.

"Yeah, this baby weighs one-hundred and fifty kilograms and can fire hundreds of bullets at ten rounds per minute!" Said Bowla looking excited. "It could level a building in just three seconds!"

"And it costs four-hundred thousand dollars to fire it for twelve seconds." Said the Heavy Weapons Guy. "I could level four buildings no problem."

"Um… how do you know so much about them?" asked Teo.

"Daddy got me one for my third birthday! Well, one that suited my size."

Teo found it a bit disturbing that Bowla's dad got her a mini-gun for her third birthday. "So… your dad bequeathed to you a mini mini-gun?" Said Sabrina with a slight chuckle to her tone.

Bowla chuckled a bit herself. "I guess."

The Heavy Weapons Guy laughed a bit before looking over to Sabrina who still held the pans, and then he sighed. "To think I lowered myself to stealing."

Teo turned to the Heavy Weapons Guy. "If… you like… we can take the pans to Luigi… and say we just found them?"

The Heavy Weapons Guy stood up. "No." Teo took a few steps back feeling scared. He then walked up to Sabrina and gently took the pans. "I must pay for my crimes, I will return these myself."

* * *

Much later, Teo, Bowla, Sabrina and the Heavy Weapons Guy went to the restaurant carriage where Luigi, Mandy, Gadget and Samantha are.

"So, you stole these because you loved the Pizza Sandwiches so much that you wanted more?" asked Inspector Gadget.

"I'm sorry, it is truth. I did not have any more money to spare for such delicious foods. So, I resorted to stealing."

Luigi gently took the pans from the Heavy Weapons Guy, but he smiled as he did. "Well I suppose I can forgive you."

"Y-You can?"

"Of course, I'm actually a little flattered. It just means you love my cooking so much." Luigi chuckled slightly. "All is forgiven."

The Heavy Weapons Guy nodded. "Thank you."

Gadget smiled. "Well it's good to know that the mystery has been solved." He then faces Teo. "Now then young man, I assume you were the one who found the pans?"

"Well… n-no, Bowla and Sabrina did more than me."

"Are you kidding? If it wasn't for you sniffing out the trails, we never would've found him." Said Bowla.

"Well in any case, Teo I would like you to meet me in Room Six, I would like to discuss something important. Concerning the little 'notice' you received early this morning." Said Gadget.

Teo was confused at first, but then he remembered about the threatening note. "O-Ok."

"I better go too." Said Bowla as she placed her hands on Teo's shoulders. "He's a total scaredy cat when talking to strangers."

"Very well then, I would also like to say Samantha is free to go."

"Thank you." Said Samantha cheerfully, she then faced the others. "And thank you for finding the one who really piled the pans."

"IT'S PILFER! P-I-L-F-E-R! PUT PILL AND FUR TOGETHER AND YOU GET PILFER!" Shouted Sabrina looking almost furious; there was a bit of an awkward silence soon after. She then sighed. "Just… just forget it. Nevertheless Samantha, I require your assistance with lifting a heavy item."

"Well in any case, meet me in my room when you are ready." With that Gadget walked away.

"I best get back to the cooking." Said Luigi, he then faced the Heavy Weapons Guy. "Would you like to accompany me? I can show you how to make Deluxe Pizza Sandwiches."

The Heavy Weapons Guy gave off a big smile. "You… you mean it?!"

"Of course, that way you can make your own rather than paying so much." With that Luigi and the Heavy Weapons Guy walked up towards the kitchen.

The only ones left besides the kids was Mandy, who simply looked down at them for a few seconds, then walked away without saying a word. Soon after, Mike and Jack entered the restaurant carriage and walked up to the others. "Sheesh… some people being so demanding these days." Grumbled Mike, "So have the pans been found."

"Not at this point in time." Said Sabrina making the others look at her confused. "We are still trying to locate them."

"Great." Said Mike sarcastically. "Some big kids said they'd help us if we can find out what this girl one of them likes."

"Might be wise to question the girl herself and see what you can discover." Said Sabrina.

"We were just about to do that." Said Jack. With that the two walked off towards the other exit where Rooms Three, Four and Five are.

Once they were out of sight, Bowla turned to Sabrina. "Ok, you must've had a reason for lying."

"That way they will continue to do honourable activities to gratify Santa." Said Sabrina smirking. "That and I must gratify my own love for causing mischief."

"But… lying to them means you might not get any presents." Said Teo.

"On the contrary my endearing kiddy-kat friend. Since I drove them to do respectable and kind-heartedness deeds, I too am doing the decent decision." She then faced Samantha. "Now then, come with me."

"Ok!" With that, the two made their way towards the little shop leaving Teo and Bowla alone.

Teo looked over to the door leading to the carriage Gadget went through. "W-We should get going." Bowla nodded and the two made their way towards the door.

As the two entered the next carriage, they noticed two faces. One was Sharpfin and the other was the teenage boy in red, both looking down at them.

"Rumour has it that you kids found the thief have you not?" asked Sharpfin.

"Uh… y-yes sir." Said Teo feeling shy.

"We wanted to thank you personally." Said the teenager. "My name's Chip Skylark, I'm a pro singer."

"And I'm Sharpfin, Baron of Motleyville and an ingenious salesman. Thanks to you lot, we can finally get something to eat." Sharpfin then dug into his jacket and handed Teo a little snow-globe. "A little something-something from my own town. A thank you gift."

"Yeah, we owed you one." Said Chip, he then dug into his pocket and handed Bowla a small silver necklace. "A small gift from one of my fans. But you deserve it more."

"W-Wow… um… t-thank you." Said Teo.

Bowla examined the necklace. "This is pretty cool!"

Soon the two had walked past Teo and Bowla, but Sharpfin quickly gave Teo a rub on the head as he went by. Teo let out a slight chuckle once the two were gone. "It's… nice to be appreciated."

The two then walked up to Room Six and opened it; there they saw Inspector Gadget himself having a cup of tea. He noticed the two and gave them a wave with the robotic hand in his hat. "Glad you could make it."

Teo and Bowla sat down on the opposite couch. "So, you know who wrote the threatening note?"

"I do, and I don't. The conductor told me of this situation and while you did your business concerning the food thief, I did a bit of research on everyone that is on this train and I think I have a few suspects." Said Gadget.

"So, who are they?" asked Teo.

"My first suspect is the Heavy Weapons Guy himself… granted he was already charged for another crime, that doesn't mean he can't be charged for another… that gun of his is capable of levelling buildings, and he has a license to carry that gun as well as explosives. Even if he doesn't have any bombs on him, firing his gun into the main engine could blow the entire train up."

"I don't think he would have a reason to blow up the train, would he?" asked Bowla.

"So far there is no reason for him to, but we cannot rule him out completely. While he has no motivation, he still carries the weapons capable of destroying the train, meaning he could be the one or his weapons will be used by another."

"He... did seem like a nice man though… who are the others?" asked Teo.

"My next suspect is Sharpfin. His business is more than shady and had authorities to carry weaponry. I have a theory on his motivation however, his business is mostly scraps of machinery, and this train costs millions, if he blew it up, he could salvage the scraps or sell his own to repair the train, therefore he would make a major fortune."

Teo looked down at the snow-globe Sharpfin gave him, he gave out a quiet sigh, hoping it wasn't him seeing as how nice he was to him. "A fair assumption, anyone else?" asked Bowla.

"There's the waitress Mandy."

"M-Mandy? But… why her? She would seem… like the least suspicious." Said Teo.

"I was unsure myself, but I looked up some big info on her. She apparently has a criminal record, she has caused massive damage to several sections of her own town in the past, she has even blown up a small building before, she's only working on this train as a punishment, Jury Duty actually, she would likely blow this train up if she grows tired of working here, in which I believe she already has."

"Wow… s-sounds like Bowla." Bowla glared at Teo who leaned back feeling nervous.

"My final suspect is Mr Stan from the little shop. Who recently insured his shop and everything in it. Meaning if the train were to blow up, he would make a massive fortune just like that."

Bowla rubbed her head. "So, four suspects… but there's something… would the suspect actually blow up the train while still on it?"

"My guess is no." said Gadget. "If fact I wager that the suspect will set the explosives just before leaving, meaning we have until the train stops to find and arrest him or her."

"So… when will the train stop?" asked Teo.

"If what the conductor told me is true, it will stop at a small station to refuel tomorrow at two in the afternoon."

"So that means we have until then to stop this creep before they blow up the train." Said Bowla. "Does anyone else know about the note?"

"I haven't told anyone." Said Gadget. "So, the only ones that should know this are me, the conductor and you kids. And I suggest we keep this to ourselves, don't say a word. We don't want to cause a panic."

"But that also means that whoever knows about the threat besides the ones you said, he or she will definitely be the suspect." Said Teo.

Soon Gadget stood up. "Now I strongly suggest that we begin searching for the suspect, try to converse with them while looking for any evidence, even the faintest evidence could be vital."

Teo and Bowla stood up too. "Got it. And thank you for your help." Said Teo.

"No problem, you can always count on Inspector Gadget to solve the case, and with you clever kids at my side, the case should be solved quicker."

As the three left the room, they all began to walk towards the restaurant carriage to begin their search. As they entered the restaurant, they all stopped in the middle where Gadget spoke to them quietly. "I'm going to check the shop out, why don't you let your friends know about what's going on, so they can help."

"Ok." Said Bowla quietly. With that Teo and Bowla walked towards the next carriage while Gadget made his way to the shop.

As they walked, Teo began to think to himself.

' _Heavy Weapons Guy, Sharpfin, Mandy and Mr Stan… all four of them are suspects. Heavy has the weapons, Sharpfin can make a lot of money, Mandy's destroyed stuff before and Mr Stan can make a lot of money too… could only one of them be a suspect, or could all of them be… so many suspects, so little time, I really hope we can find the bad guy before time runs out… and I really hope we can save Christmas too._ '

Teo continued to walk with Bowla, but he looked back to see Gadget and Stan talking through the shop window, Heavy Weapons Guy cooking with Luigi, Sharpfin eating and Mandy sitting at one of the tables bored. Anyone could be the real bad guy. Teo looked back hoping to find the bad guy soon. Unaware of the silver fly looking at them from the ceiling.


	2. Mysteries

**Chapter 2: Mysteries**

* * *

In Room Five. We find Sabrina and Samantha sitting on same couch, Samantha seemed cheery, but Sabrina looked pouty with her arms crossed. "Train ride's pretty fun, right?" asked Samantha.

"YOU DESTROYED IT!" exclaimed Sabrina who turned to face her. "You hurled that miniature telly to the ground smashing it to smithereens!"

"B-But those other kids in the purple jackets were doing it." Said Samantha smirking.

"They were throwing firecrackers! You are supposed to throw them to make them go bang! Not miniature telly's!"

"That miniature telly certainly went bang!" said Samantha cheerfully.

"You are an idiot." Said Sabrina as she turned away from her.

"Still. At least we got the duck." Samantha took out a small yellow toy duck from a small shopping bag.

Sabrina turned to face Samantha again with an annoyed yet confused expression. "The duck?"

"Yeah! It's made out of plastic."

Sabrina sighed. "Samantha… what in the name of Greek balderdash is the use of a plastic duck?"

Samantha began swaying it from side to side towards Sabrina. "It floats in the bath." Then Samantha made it bob up and down once it was right up to Sabrina's face. "Hello."

Sabrina looked back to Samantha as she pulled it away from her faced. "Why?"

"It's hollow."

Sabrina rolled her eyes starting to feel frustrated. "Why the duck?"

"It came free with the telly."

Sabrina sighed again. "Samantha… EVERYTHING came free with the telly, it was all-expense-paid. Why didn't you get a free telly with the telly?"

"Well it would sink in the bath!" exclaimed Samantha.

Sabrina covered her face and let out a very aggravated "ARRRRGH!" at Samantha's stupidity. She then got off from the chair and was about to leave the room in a desperate attempt to keep away from Samantha, but just before she could open the door, Teo and Bowla opened it and entered making her step back a bit.

"S-Sorry." Muttered Teo.

"Never mind that, I require to maintain a harmless distance from Samantha for a moment before I do something a little too impulsive."

"Do that later. We need to chat." Said Bowla as Teo looked out of the door looking left and right before closing it.

"What do you require to state?" asked Sabrina.

A little later, Teo and Bowla finished explaining everything Gadget had told them about, including the four suspects and their motives, Samantha tried to pay attention, but she lost focus five minutes in as she played with the plastic duck.

"So, we have the shark known as Sharpfin, Mr. Stan, Mandy and the Heavy Weapon Guy as the primary suspects." Said Sabrina.

"So, all we need to do is force the truth out of them!" said Bowla looking pleased.

"How do you assume to interrogate them? It is inadvisable to use your fire breath within the confines of this train, as you could set it alight."

"Just gimme a cheese grater, some salt and a chalkboard and I can get that info in no time."

Teo felt a bit uncomfortable now. Mostly because of the chalkboard, the last time she used a chalkboard to torture people; it required his claws scratching it, not only did Teo hate the noise, it hurts his claws. "I... I think that um… maybe we should try to um, find the truth in secret."

"I would recommend that more than your method Bowla. We do not know what the adversary is capable of."

Bowla crossed her arms letting out a huff. "Kill-joys."

"So, what can I do?" asked Samantha looking cheery.

"YOU can remain here and do your own meaningless games." Said Sabrina looking annoyed.

There was a bit of silence, until Teo turned to Bowla. "Um… what happened?"

"Who knows, who cares." Bowla then turns to Sabrina. "Anyway… we have four suspects… how should we interrogate them?"

"Well first of all, as Teo recommended, we should gather the information undisclosed… if we require to exchange dialogue with them, do not directly state anything involving the message or explosives. Furthermore, I say we should go our isolated ways and try to gather information from three of the four suspects."

"Um… who should we um, speak to first?" asked Teo.

"Select any you believe would be best for you to examine for evidence… I will attempt to find what I can with Mr. Sharpfin. You mentioned he was a distrustful businessman- er shark, we are mutually comparable in terms of deceitfulness and mischief."

Bowla nods. "Makes sense, guess I'll see what I can do with Mr. Stan." She turns to Teo. "What about you?"

"Um… it's either Mandy or um… the Heavy Guy… I… I don't know yet. Whichever's closest I suppose."

"Whoever should finish with their target first; try and get information from the remaining suspect." Said Sabrina.

"What if we already find the suspect?" asked Bowla.

"We should try and get information on all four regardless, just to be safe. We cannot make any rash conclusions; we have to be sure the first one we decide is the malefactor is the correct one. If we make even one mistake, we can say farewell to this train and perchance our lives."

Teo gulped slightly. This only added pressure to him, but he nodded and tried his best to keep calm. "So… what about the others?"

"Samantha, Mike and Jack?" asked Sabrina. "Let them continue their diversions, it is better they do not interfere considering it could devastate our strategy."

Teo and Bowla look over to Samantha who was looking out the window watching the snow fly by, completely oblivious to what they were saying. "That snow… it looks just like ice cream… or maybe cake frosting… large clumps of sugar?"

Teo felt it would be bad to simply leave them out, but he knew Mike, Jack and Samantha more than Bowla and Sabrina do, and he knew they would get in the way or ruin their plan. "Ok… we should go now."

The three got up and left the room leaving Samantha behind, Bowla closed the door and the three began to walk towards the restaurant carriage. "So, when will the train halt?" asked Sabrina.

"Tomorrow at two." Said Bowla.

Sabrina digs into her left sleeve and takes out a small golden pocket watch. "Hm… it is twelve now… so we have fourteen hours."

"That's a pretty cool watch there." Said Bowla.

"Cheers, I paltered it from Mr. Stan while he was not looking- I MEAN PILFERED!" Sabrina looks away scoffing in frustration. "Samantha's senselessness is rubbing off on me like pestilence."

* * *

We find Mike and Jack in another carriage with Rooms One and Two. Mike opened the door to Room Two, only for the two to see a giant man blocking the door wearing a purple jacket and sunglasses. "If this is that 'hot chick' Eddy was talking about then he must be either blind or mad." Said Mike.

The large man raised an eyebrow, and then he turned around. "Miss Tang, I think these boys here would like to meet you."

"Who are they?" asked a sweet-sounding voice.

"Some bucktoothed fat kid and a nerdy kid with a grey afro."

"Bucktoothed?! Fat?!" exclaimed Mike.

"Nerdy?" asked Jack looking concerned.

"We'll take care of this." At that point, two teenage boys stepped forward, one was blonde, one was black; both of them wore the same type of clothing, a purple jacket with black trousers and sunglasses.

"I don't think either of you are this Miss Tang girl." chuckled Mike.

The blonde boy fixed his sunglasses. "A bunch of losers like you are not worthy to speak with us popular kids."

"Popular? I just happen to be the Rooster of Miss Hulgary's Orphanage. So, I'm the popular kid in my area." Jack nodded agreeing to Mike.

"Yes, but who cares?" said the black-haired boy. "You're not as popular as us, so you're not worthy to speak to anyone, especially Trixie."

With that the two closed the door, "JERKS!" Mike shouted. Then he and Jack faced each other looking annoyed. "Now what?" asked Mike.

"Don't know… might be best to speak with those kids at Room Eight again." Said Jack.

"This had better be worth it." With that the two began to walk away from Room Two and move back to Room Eight.

* * *

Teo, Bowla and Sabrina entered the restaurant carriage where a few people were eating. In that room however were the four suspects. Sharpfin was eating at one of the tables; Mandy was sitting at one of them looking bored, Mr. Stan was in his shop and the Heavy Weapons Guy was in the kitchen with Luigi.

"Ok, commence interrogation." whispered Sabrina.

Bowla and Sabrina immediately made their way to their targets. Sabrina went to Sharpfin while Bowla walked towards the shop. Teo looked between Mandy and the Heavy Weapons Guy, he agreed to try and get information from whoever was closest, but he was really nervous, he had enough trouble talking to his own friends let alone strangers. After a quick examination, he decided that Mandy was closer, and slowly made his way to her feeling very nervous.

Teo was halfway there and Mandy had not noticed him yet. Once Teo was close enough to talk to her, he suddenly tripped over his own leg and fell forward fast smacking the top of his head on the table surprising Mandy. She turned to face the boy who slowly got up shedding tears. What Teo did not expect afterwards was Mandy turning to him and she picked him up, she placed Teo on the chair next to her. "That must've hurt." She said emotionlessly.

"S-Sorry…"

"What for?"

"F-For, um… f-for bothering you."

Mandy began to examine Teo's forehead. "Hm… slight bruise but should heal in no time."

Teo fell silent once more, but knew one thing. This would be the perfect time to speak now that a conversation had already started, so he immediately plucked up the courage to speak. "Um… t-thank you? Uh… I-I mean…" Teo sighed. "N-Never mind."

"Not good in the social department, are you?"

"N-No…" Teo looked around, desperately trying to think of something to talk about and get answers. "So… a-are you the only maid here?"

"Yeah, small place so we don't need that many…" Mandy looked away huffing. "Not that I want to be here mind you."

"Um… w-why not?"

Mandy looked back over to Teo. "I'm here because of Jury Duty. They thought making me a maid on this stupid train would be punishable enough. I have to stay here for six months, and I'm half way through month one."

"Y-You have to stay… during Christmas too?"

Mandy looked away feeling bored. "Yep. Train's don't stop for any holiday."

Teo looked a bit upset. "So, uh… you… don't get to see your um… family?"

"Guess not… what do I care anyway?"

"You… don't l-like your family?"

"They're idiots and cowards. Same with my friends, I have enough trouble tolerating them as it is."

Teo felt a bit upset that she thought of her friends and family that way. Then it occurred to him, his confidence suddenly boosted for this as well. "So, um… t-then you're not being punished, right?"

Mandy looked over to Teo again. "What exactly do you mean?"

"Well… you're keeping yourself far away from those you hate…" Teo then looked around. "This train is very warm and cosy… plus you get to stay here for free, right? So… your, um, only punishment is wearing that outfit and taking people's orders, right?"

Mandy was silent at first, then she looked away with the faintest of smiles. "Hm… you make a good point actually. Suppose now I think about it, my time in this train hasn't been that bad…" she looks over to Teo again. "You know what… you actually helped me out here."

"Um… I did?"

"Yeah, I was getting so annoyed at this place. Thinking I should just blow it up it somehow." Teo leaned back feeling nervous. "But… well I guess I was just angry at this place because of my job and the fact this was supposed to be punishment… but this place is alright now that I think about it, I'm away from those idiots and this is much better than prison."

Teo felt as if now would be the time. "W-Would you actually try to destroy this train?"

"Well I keep saying in my head I would… but I don't actually have any access to anything I could use to blow this place up."

"Um… would you ever… warn anyone if you did?"

"Nah, I'd rather keep it a secret, cause less of a panic so it hits them harder."

"I… uh… I see… but you're not going to, right?"

"I think I would rather stay here then with my annoying family and friends… or in prison. If I blew up this place, then I would have to go to either of those."

"O-Ok…" Teo felt as if he got enough information, now all he needed to do was find a way to leave politely.

"Hey Mandy." Called Luigi. "I need some help, would you mind?"

"Whatever." Said Mandy as she stood up, but before she walked towards them, she looked down to Teo and then rubbed his head. "Thanks kid." With that she walked away from Teo and towards Luigi and the Heavy Weapons Guy.

Teo looked over to Mandy who began to help Luigi and the Heavy Weapons Guy. He then felt the top of his head where Mandy rubbed, and then Teo let out a small smile. First Sharpfin and then Mandy appreciating him for what he's done. Since he already finished talking with Mandy, next was the Heavy Weapons Guy, but instead of talking to him, he decided to sit where he was and watch him from a distance.

Further down the room, we find Sabrina on her hands and knees just in front of Sharpfin's table. So far no one has noticed her, so she immediately crawled under the table keeping her hidden thanks to the tablecloth. Sabrina carefully examined Sharpfin's knee pockets for anything lumps or bulges, she could see a few so she decided to gently sneak her hand into the left pocket to examine what it could be. She had yet to speak with Sharpfin, but knowing he might try to deceive her, she hoped to find evidence to counterattack him before doing so.

Meanwhile, Mike and Jack entered the restaurant room. Mike was furious however, the two went back to Room Five to look for Sabrina, only for Samantha to say the crime was already solved. "We did all that for nothing?!" growled Mike.

"Well to be fair, we hardly did much to begin with." Said Jack.

Mike and Jack continued to walk along the restaurant room looking for Sabrina. It didn't take long for them to notice something odd about Sharpfin's table; they both noticed a slight movement from the cloth, as if someone was under there. Mike and Jack slowly walked up to it without Sharpfin noticing. Jack slowly lifted the cloth to see Sabrina facing the other way looking into Sharpfin's pockets. Since she was facing the other way, she had not seen Mike or Jack.

Mike quietly sniggered, thinking of a devious idea. He quickly made his way to the kitchen and took a long wooden spoon, and then he made his way back to the table unnoticed. As Jack kept the cloth up, Mike aimed the wooden spoon towards Sabrina's backside.

Mike immediately shoved the wooden spoon forward causing Sabrina to let out a high-pitched shriek shooting her head up smacking the table and making Sharpfin jump. He noticed the enraged Sabrina leaving the table and dragging the sniggering Mike and Jack away. Sharpfin was confused at first, but then he dug into his pockets to see if he had anything of his stolen.

Teo watched that the entire time, trying his best not to laugh, though he was forced to turn around and placed his arms and head against the table to try and hide his sniggering.

Sabrina entered the next carriage with Rooms Three, Four and Five while dragging Mike and Jack, then she threw them against the wall. "WHAT THE DEVIL WERE YOU THINKING?!"

"We could ask you the same thing? Why did you lie to us about Samantha still being a suspect!?" asked Mike aggressively.

"I was doing you ungrateful lot an act of kindness. Santa won't want to give presents to those who are depraved like you two, that's why I deceived you into continuing to do your generous acts."

"Admit it, you just wanted us to work our fingers to the bone for your enjoyment!" said Mike.

"Yeah, you enjoy making others miserable!" said Jack.

"Do you actually believe I am thoughtless enough to do that when we are going to visit Santa in a few days? I am attempting to get into his good books!"

"Doing a few kind deeds in a few days will never cover many years of lies and stealing!" said Jack. "You have no chance!"

"If I have no chance, then neither do you two!"

Teo enters the carriage. "Um… what's going on?"

"None of your business, you mangy cat-brat! Now go and do your stupid things!" scolded Mike making Teo flinch and step back a bit.

"Disregard him." Said Sabrina as she turned to Teo.

Teo slowly turns to Sabrina. "Um… Mr. Sharpfin might have, um… something in his room… um… is the word… evi…dence?"

Sabrina smirked. "Very good, you're learning." She wasn't being sarcastic; she knew Teo had trouble with big words. Sabrina then turned back to Mike and Jack. "Do not trouble yourselves, Teo, Bowla and I will proceed to continue 'stupid things.' That is if you consider preventing someone from destroying this train being stupid."

Mike and Jack's eyes widened, they had completely forgotten about the threat given to them this morning.

"Now if you will excuse me, Teo acquired some helpful advice and I must continue my examination… you two continue your pointless tasks, it is for the best if you do not interrupt our progress." With that Sabrina left the three and went back into the restaurant carriage.

"Drat… I forgot about the threatening note. Guess we had so much fun…" Muttered Jack.

Teo faced Mike and Jack again. He wasn't sure what to say at all. Mike then placed his hand on Teo's shoulder. "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME! BOWLA!" Teo shouted feeling terrified making Mike and Jack panic slightly.

"K-Keep it down! I'm not gonna hurt you!" said Mike.

"I've heard that one before!"

"No, I'm serious this time." Teo tried his best to calm down for just a moment. "Now look, Sabrina's right about this, we need to find the guy who's gonna blow up this train. So how about you let the real heroes handle this and you can solve our problem?" before answering, Mike pointed over to the door leading to the next carriage with Rooms One and Two. "There's a girl in Room Two and a boy in Room Eight wants to know what she likes so he can go out on a date with her. Something as simple as this shouldn't give an idiot like you too much trouble." With that, Mike and Jack walked away from Teo and entered the restaurant carriage.

Teo sighed with relief thinking Mike really was going to hurt him. But he also felt a bit annoyed and upset, now being made to do Mike and Jack's work instead of finding the culprit. None the less he trusted Bowla and Sabrina to do more than fine without him, so he slowly made his way to the next carriage. Unaware of the silver fly watching him.

* * *

Meanwhile, far up on a giant mountain completely covered in snow and ice, there stood a giant stone castle that time was unpleasant to. Inside the main quarters of this castle, we find three figures.

One of them was Santa Claus himself, who stood calmly in a giant metal cage looking over to the other two. The two who had kidnapped Santa. One was a tall man with a long nose, he wore a white lab coat and black trousers; his name was Heinz Doofenshmirtz. The other was a shorter older man with pale blue skin, long white hair and a long white beard and wore a dark blue robe with a golden crown, he was known as the Ice King.

Both Doofenshmirtz and Ice King were watching a large holographic monitor of the train that Teo and his friends were in, the screen changed to the interior where they saw Teo with Mike and Jack earlier. Thanks to the robotic spy fly.

"This is seriously who Santa requested to save him? A bunch of toddlers?" asked the Ice King as he tweaked his beard.

"Doesn't even have a fedora." Said Doofenshmirtz. "I mean that one with the crazy hair has a tail, but he's not quite a full cat, or even a platypus for that matter."

"Platypus or not, I'll have you know that those children are more than capable of dealing with you miscreants." Said Santa leaning forward.

"Not if we have anything to do about it." Said Ice King.

"I'm not exactly sure how you were able to inform these kids, but because we knew of this ahead, we sent our third buddy to blow up the train if they don't give up and go home." Said Doofenshmirtz.

"He was able to inform them because you helped him send the letter!" said Ice King looking annoyed.

"Hey, I asked if anyone needed anything while I was at the store in Shiver Town, and he asked me to post a letter. How was I supposed to know it was a rescue request?"

Santa shook his head feeling annoyed at the two. "Not the sharpest tools in the shed, are you?"

"It's no matter! Because keeping you here is only the first step of our plan! As I – Heinz Doofenshmirtz – have the ultimate weapon in destroying Christmas for good." He then dug into his pocket and took out a Yo-yo. "BEHOLD the Naughty Cry- oops hold on." He placed the Yo-yo back into his pocket and dug into the other one and took out a black rock with red cracks around it. "BEHOLD the Naughty Crystal! Just one of several thousand we kept in the back of the castle!"

"It was me and my penguins who found them in the first place." Said Ice King.

"And I called dibs on them, same with being leader of our little gang!" Doofenshmirtz faced Santa once more. "What? You didn't think that the Illuminator Globe we took from you was our only magical artefact."

Santa growled. "Those Naughty Crystals! Where did you even find them? I was certain I destroyed every last one of them!"

"Yeah, you missed a few hundred. Either way with these Naughty Crystals, I can use the Super Naughty-Inator to make every boy and girl in the world all naughty, that way even if you got free, you'd have no choice but to give all of them coal. Making everyone hate Christmas so much, they'll never want to celebrate it again."

The holographic screen changed to a flag with Doofenshmirtz face on it. "Then we will sell our own merchandising, each being blasted the Reverse-Inator's, making all the children good again, therefore making everyone want to celebrate… Doofmas! Then with all the money we make from selling our Reverse-Inated Knickknacks, we will build the ultimate empire and rule the entire galaxy! Then everyone will know the true might of the Evil Buddies!" He began to laugh evilly, and then he immediately calmed down. "You see, my plans are big."

Ice King looked at the flag, and then faced Doofenshmirtz. "So where are we in this then?"

Doofenshmirtz placed his arm around Ice King's shoulder "Oh don't worry; you and our Spy Guy will get your share too. You'll get as many princesses and celebrity women as you want, and he will get any five planets he wants."

"Princesses and celebrity women." Said Ice King smirking. "Alright, it's a deal."

"See this is why I called dibs, I make the best decisions. And I'm a black-belt at dibbing."

Santa let out a sigh. "I've been kidnapped by idiots… I feel like an even bigger idiot letting myself get captured by these buffoons." he then looked up towards an open window. "Teo… I'm counting on you."

* * *

Back on the train, we find Teo in front of the Room Two door. He knew what to do, but he was nervous regardless; slowly he moved his right arm to knock on the door. But suddenly the door opened by itself revealing a young sixteen-year-old beautiful Asian girl, she had long black hair with a white headband, wore a purple t-shirt and a white skirt and long white boots. Teo stepped back a bit feeling shy once more, but couldn't help but blush at how cute this girl was. The girl looked down noticing Teo and his tail which swished a bit. "Oh, hello there."

"Um… h-hello?"

"Who are you talking to?" the same two boys from before came out of the room. The blonde boy fixed his sunglasses. "Oh, some other unpopular kid… Trixie here doesn't have time for-"

"Oh, he's so cute." Trixie suddenly scooped Teo up in her arms and held him like a baby. This surprised the two boys, Teo was just as surprised himself. Trixie then gently grabbed Teo's tail and moved it in front of her. "Is this real? Are you a genuine Kiddy-Kat?"

"Um… y-yeah."

"Uh, Trixie… we need to get some lunch." Said the black-haired boy looking a bit jealous.

"Yeah you go ahead, I'll catch up?" The two boys sighed feeling annoyed, but they walked away without her anyway. "So… what's your name?"

"Um… T-Teonado." Trixie looked at him feeling confused. "B-But everyone calls me Teo."

"I see… it looked like you were about to knock on my door, was there anything you wanted?"

"Well… t-the boy in Room Eight said he needed something… to help him go on… a date? With you?"

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Oh him… I did say if he could get me something I really liked then I would… so I'm guessing you're here to ask what I like and then tell him right?"

Teo felt a bit nervous. "Y-Yeah…"

Trixie slowly puts Teo down. "Listen, it's best if he were to figure it out by himself."

"S-Sorry…"

Trixie bent her knees and began rubbing Teo's head. "Don't worry; it's not your fault. You were just trying to be nice." She stood up properly. "Anyway, I must be going… nice talking to you." With that she walked off to the restaurant carriage.

Before Teo could walk off, the door opened again revealing the giant man and another girl. The girl was blonde with a ponytail; she wore a white long-sleeved shirt with a pink 'D' on it and a blue skirt. "Hey kid, we heard everything." Said the giant man.

"And… we kinda agreed to help you a little… but only if you keep this a secret." Said the girl. "Don't ask why though."

"Um… t-thank you."

"That boy may not be able to find anything on this train that'll impress Trixie… except for one thing." Said the giant man. Yesterday, Trixie lost something of great importance to her… a beautiful diamond necklace. It was a birthday gift from her dad."

"Has her name engraved on it and everything; if you wanna help out this boy, then tell him about the necklace. If he can find it and return it, then it'll guarantee a date for him." Said the girl. "But for goodness sake, please don't tell anyone how you got this information." With that, the girl and the giant man both left the room and made their way towards the restaurant carriage.

"T-Thank you." Said Teo, the two replied with a quick wave.

* * *

Back in Room Five, we find Samantha continuing to play with her plastic duck. That was until she kept still for a few seconds realizing something. "I'm hungry." So, she placed her plastic duck down onto the couch and made her way out of the room, but as she exited the room, she bumped into Teo causing him to fall flat onto his backside whereas Samantha didn't even move an inch. "Sorry."

Teo slowly got up. "That's alright. Um, what are you doing out of your room?"

"I'm hungry, so I'm going to get something to eat."

"But… it's only been about an hour since you last ate."

"Yeah? I'm still hungry."

Teo sighed. "A-Alright…" the two began to walk together towards the restaurant carriage.

As they entered it, Samantha immediately made her way to one of the tables and sat down looking at the menu. Teo sighed as he continued walking to the other side. That was until he noticed Mandy who turned to him. "Is that fat friend of yours ordering again?"

"Y-Yeah…"

"She just ate."

"I know."

Mandy rolled her eyes. "Does she have a limit?"

"If she does I've never seen it." Teo realized something; Mandy was part of staff, so that means she may know something about Trixie's necklace. "Um… can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Um… a-a girl lost her diamond necklace yesterday… I don't suppose you've um… seen it, have you?"

"No… mind you I haven't been paying attention to this sort of stuff; I've been busy with my own problems."

"Um… w-what are they?"

Mandy sighed. "Two days ago… I lost a necklace too."

"Is it… diamond?"

"No actually. It's made up of dinosaur bones." Mandy then tilts her head over to someone else; Teo looked to see a seventeen-year-old boy with red hair, red eyes and wore a creamy yellow t-shirt and dark blue overalls, this boy was sweeping the floors. "That boy over there gave it to me a few months ago. Yen Hawk."

"Is… he… your friend?" Mandy looked to the other side, the faintest blushes could be seen on her cheeks. "Oh… your… b-boyfriend?"

"Anyway, I was quite… glad when he gave me it. And I really want to find it before this train stops."

"W-Why's that?"

"Because if this train stops. Then passengers will leave… and one of them could have my dinosaur bone necklace."

Teo was silent at first, but then he nodded. "I-I… I'll help you find it, if that's alright."

Mandy shrugged her shoulders. "If you wanna, go. I won't stop you." With that, she began to walk off to serve Samantha, but then she turned to Teo. "Thanks."

"Y-You're welcome." Teo walked off towards the door to Rooms Six, Seven and Eight. That was until he noticed something in the shop. ' _BOWLA?!_ '

Teo entered the shop to find Bowla threatening Mr. Stan while he was tied up and hung upside down. "I'm warning you! I know the eight worst places to get smacked with a hot pipe! You better tell me what I need to know or else!"

"Bowla?! What are you doing?!"

Bowla faced Teo and smiled. "Oh, hey Teo, just getting information."

"B-But Mr. Gadget said to do it in secret."

"Eh… I got bored."

"What information is this crazy brat wanting!?" shouted Stan. "She just keeps yelling at me demanding answers to questions she didn't even ask!"

Teo sighed and walked up to him. "Uh… w-we were just wondering… um… why you insured your shop and everything in it."

"Because it's close to Christmas, that's the time when we start bringing out the alcohol for customers over twenty-one! I've had a fair share of my stuff destroyed by those drunken idiots in the past few years, so I thought to insure it before it starts!" Stan faces Bowla. "NOW WILL YOU PUT ME DOWN!?"

Bowla sighed as she took a few steps back and picked up a large knife. She then threw it at the rope hanging Stan up cutting it and he fell onto the ground hard. As Stan sat up, Teo used the claw on his right index finger to cut a bit of the rope which tied him up, cutting it made the entire rope fall off of him. Stan stood up wiping the dust off his jacket and pointed to the door. "NOW GET OUT!"

Teo and Bowla left the shop as Stan slammed the door behind them. "Um… M-Mr. Gadget told us to keep it a secret."

"At least I didn't tell him about the note." Bowla looked around. "Speaking of which, where is that robotic weirdo?"

The two found Gadget at one of the tables speaking with Mike and Jack. Teo leaned closer to Bowla. "He must be telling them about the suspects."

"As long as Mike and Jack don't spread the news like wildfire, we should be safe."

Teo nodded and made his way towards the next carriage, Bowla decided to follow him. The two made it to Room Eight, at which point Teo slowly knocked at it.

"So, what are we doing here?" asked Bowla.

"I-"

The door opened revealing Edd. "Oh, hello there, what can I do for you?"

Teo felt nervous again. "I uhh… a-are you the boy… who wants to date that girl in um, Room Two?"

"Trixie?" asked another boy. Eddy immediately went to the door as Edd moved out of the way. "So, I'm guessing that bucktoothed kid gave you the job instead?"

"Y-Yeah… I… I heard that um… T-Trixie's missing a diamond necklace, um, with her name on it."

"So, if I find this necklace, that'll guarantee I'll get a date with her." Eddy then rubbed Teo's head. "Thanks kid."

"Y-You're welcome."

"So now that they helped you, now we gotta repay them by helping with Samantha's claim." Said Edd.

"Are you kidding? That's old news. We already solved that case." Chuckled Bowla.

"Oh, I see." Said Edd.

"Well, guess we don't need to help you right?" asked Eddy.

"Eddy, we should at least try to help them with something else." Said Edd.

Eddy sighed. "Alright… is there anything we can help you with?"

Teo began to rub his head trying to think. "Um… n-not sure."

"Well if there's anything you need, let us know. We'll help you out." Eddy then left the room and made his towards the restaurant carriage. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a necklace to find."

"D-Don't tell Trixie I said this." Teo turned to Edd. "Um… I-If you find a-another necklace made of dinosaur bones… could you give it to the waitress?"

"She's missing a necklace too?" asked Edd. "Certainly, we will keep an eye out."

"T-Thank you… w-well we must be going."

"I'll see you later." With that Edd closed the door.

Bowla turned to Teo. "Ok? So, what was that all about?"

"I-It's a long story."

The two began to walk back to the restaurant carriage. That was until they noticed the door to Room Seven was slightly open. Teo slowly opened it and the two saw Sabrina trying to open a briefcase by trying different combinations on the lock. Bowla quietly shushed Teo and snuck slowly towards Sabrina, she then very creepily moves to Sabrina's left ear.

"What are you doing?" Sabrina shrieked as she quickly stood up and turned to face Bowla who could not stop laughing. Teo slowly walked in trying his best not to laugh.

"What are you attempting to accomplish?! Giving me a heart-attack?!"

Um… I-Is this Sharpfin's room?" asked Teo.

"Affirmative." Said Sabrina calming down, "I was searching the room for any evidence like you recommended. So, what are the results of your examinations?"

"Um… M-Mandy has no reason to blow this train up, she enjoys it here… and Mr. Stan insured the shop because of alcohol."

"What about the Heavy Weapons Guy?"

"W-We didn't speak to him… but I don't think he would destroy the train anyway since he's still making those pizza sandwiches."

Sabrina rubbed her chin. "But were you able to find evidence that prove what they said is true?"

"N-No…"

"So, we cannot exclude them just yet… at the same time you didn't find evidence of them with explosives, did you?" Teo shook his head. "So, while we cannot exclude them, we have no evidence of their crime… therefore we should concentrate on them less and more on Sharpfin."

"No problem." Said Bowla. "Just gimme a tenderizer and some bleach and I'll get that info in no time."

"Do you always resort to vehemence?" Bowla stood there quietly. "It means forcefulness, violence in other words."

"Use normal words then, and if I can't breathe fire while we're in here, so I gotta use what I can get."

"Anyway, I examined his pockets and his entire room and found nothing incriminating." Sabrina turns to the briefcase. "All except for this… I was attempting to unlock it up until you scared me senseless."

"Oh, come on, you would've done the exact same thing if I was trying to unlock that briefcase." Said the smug Bowla as she crossed her arms; Sabrina couldn't help but shrug her shoulders agreeing to what she said. "Anyway, give it here and I'll tear it open."

"Bowla, seriously! I do not want any of us causing damage."

"But if this briefcase has what it needs to blow up this train, then we should tear that briefcase open and throw all the contents out the window! Or better yet, just throw the briefcase out!"

"But what if Sharpfin is NOT the malefactor. We would be removing an innocent person- er shark's possessions."

"Sabrina you've done worse for less."

"First of all, I'm attempting to get in Santa's good books. Second, this is a precarious situation in which my mischief making has to be put to a minimal until this problem is concluded." Sabrina turned to the briefcase again and began to use the combinations. "Now if you will excuse me, I have a code to hack… why not make yourself beneficial and keep an eye out for Sharpfin."

Teo nodded and walked out of Room Seven and towards the restaurant carriage while Sabrina and Bowla stayed behind. Once Teo was gone, Bowla leaned over to watch Sabrina. "Going for the whole 111, 112, 113 thing, are you Sabrina?"

"Do you have a superior solution? Because I would be ecstatic to learn this."

* * *

We find Mike, Jack and Inspector Gadget in the restaurant carriage, Gadget had finished explaining everything to them, although he agreed to not tell anyone else, he figured since Mike and Jack were part of Teo's group, it would be fine. "Ok, that's everything I know. I'm sure Teo and Bowla have already begun to search for any evidence on the four suspects. Now you must keep this a secret at all costs. We don't want to make a panic."

Mike and Jack nodded. "You have nothing to worry about. Now that I'm on the case, this mystery will be solved in no time." Said Mike.

"Of course, Mike didn't become the Rooster of our Orphanage for nothing." Said Jack.

"Oh, sorry about that."

"That's alright."

Mike, Jack and Gadget turned to see Samantha talking with Chip Skylark, from the looks of it, Samantha accidentally bumped into him.

"So, are you enjoying the train so far?" asked Chip.

"Sure am, I'm mostly enjoying the food."

Chip chuckled. "I can see. Well take care." He moved his left hand out for a handshake in which Samantha did the same.

As they shook hands, Samantha felt something. She gently grabbed Chip's hand and turned it, there she saw a long cut across the tip of his index and middle finger. "What happened to your hand?"

Chip gently pulled it back. "Oh, it's nothing, just a paper cut from signing autographs. Well see you later." With that he walked off towards the carriage with rooms three, four and five.

"Bye Mr. Skylark."

Mike, Jack and Gadget all walked up to Samantha. "He sure is a nice young man, isn't he?" Asked Gadget.

"Yep. Sure is."

"Who is he anyway?" asked Mike looking over to Gadget.

"That's Chip Skylark, despite his age he's a very successful singer and dancer. I heard he cares a lot more for his fans than his own fame. A lot of other celebrities could learn from him."

"A celebrity his age though… seems anyone can be famous no matter how old you are." Said Jack, he soon noticed Mike looking up with stars in his eyes, likely imagining to be a famous singer.

"Y'Know… I could totally be like him." Muttered Mike. Jack simply rolled his eyes.

"In any case. We should start looking around for any evidence." Gadget turns to see the Heavy Weapons Guy still cooking with Luigi. "Perhaps the Heavy Weapons Guy first."

* * *

Back to Bowla and Sabrina. Sabrina continued to use every combination on the briefcase's lock. Sabrina began to sigh with frustration; she was currently on 582 out of 999. "This is taking longer than I had desired." She turns to the next number only to have heard a loud 'click' which surprised the two of them.

"So, what was that about it taking longer?" Chuckled Bowla.

Sabrina tried to open the briefcase, but she still had trouble. "I… I do not understand, I figured out the combination, so nothing should be keeping this briefcase secure."

Sabrina and Bowla noticed a hand appear between them holding a key. "Even if you got the combination correct, it still requires a key to open it."

Sabrina was about to take the key. "Oh, thank you." They then released it was Sharpfin behind and the two quickly jumped back looking scared.

They also noticed Teo being held by Sharpfin in his free hand. "U-Um… S-Sharpfin's coming?"

"And just what are you two doing in my room?!" Exclaimed Sharpfin. "First you go snooping around in me own pockets, and then you sneak into my room trying to open my briefcase! I oughta have you lot arrested for trying to nick my stuff!"

"W-We were not attempting to pilfer your belongings!" exclaimed Sabrina.

"I've heard THAT one before!"

"Someone is trying to blow up this train!" Said Teo.

Sharpfin's eyes widened at what Teo said, whereas Sabrina and Bowla felt nervous. Sharpfin placed Teo down next to the girls. "What do you mean?"

"W-We um… r-received a threatening note saying… to get off this train um, or it'll blow up." Said Teo feeling very nervous.

Sabrina stepped forward. "We have been searching for the one who endangered us to begin with, and stop him or her from performing the deed."

Sharpfin was silent, but he moved his arm and dragged the briefcase closer to him. Then he inserted the key into the briefcase and opened it. The three looked over to see what was in the briefcase, all they saw was a long metal tube and some metal squares. "These are all parts to make an engine; I'm on this train to Shiver Town for business. Someone needed a new engine for their machines and had paid me an absolute fortune to do the job."

"I see…" Muttered Sabrina.

"I may be a bit tight-fisted, and I love making money… but I would never destroy something like this train. I've been riding this train for many years, back when I was a wee shark no taller than you lot."

"Um… w-we're really sorry for bothering you Mr. Sharpfin." Said Teo.

Sharpfin looked somewhat angry, but he calmed down. "Look… I don't blame you… someone is threatening to destroy this train… anyone could be a suspect. But the only thing that is remotely volatile is the liquids used for the engine I'm building… but don't you worry, it can only go off if it is mixed with three other ingredients, in which the odds of all four being together are next to nothing."

"Maybe, but it is still possible for the stuff to explode, right?" asked Bowla.

"Listen, I will make sure no one gets into my briefcase." Sharpfin closes the briefcase and takes the key out. "Not only that, but I will keep an eye out for anyone suspicious. If they think they can destroy the same train I rode many times as a child, they've got another thing coming."

"Um… t-thank you Mr. Sharpfin." Said Teo.

"No worries. Now in any case, you lot better get going. And don't worry; I'll keep this a secret."

Teo, Bowla and Sabrina all left Sharpfin's room and made their way to the restaurant carriage, but Teo stopped himself and thought about something. He then made his way to the other side where the conductor stood feeling bored.

"Oh, hello Teo. What can I do for you?"

"Um… d-do you still um… have that note?"

"The one you gave me this morning? Sure." He dug into his pocket and handed Teo the note.

"T-Thank you." With that Teo ran off to catch up with Bowla and Sabrina.

The two notice him just catching up. "Where were you?" asked Bowla.

"Just getting this note, I had an idea."

The three entered the restaurant carriage; there they saw almost everyone leaving besides Mike, Jack, Samantha and Gadget. The only ones' left were Luigi and Mandy who were cleaning the kitchen.

Teo, Bowla and Sabrina walked up to the others. "We looked through Sharpfin's belongings, but nothing." Said Bowla.

"Not even sweets?" asked Samantha.

"Sharpfin did have a form of liquid that he claimed would be volatile when mixed with three other components. But he also said he would certainly not destroy this train since he used to ride it when he was a juvenile. He even said he was going to be of assistance in the examination." Said Sabrina.

Little did any of them know; Mandy was actually listening to their conversation from a distance while looking the other way pretending to be oblivious.

"So now what?" asked Mike.

"Um… I had an idea." muttered Teo.

"Oh please… you? An idea? Don't make me laugh." said Mike.

"Ignore him, so what is it Teo?" asked Bowla.

"Um… t-the person who wrote the note… did it with his hands… so if we can get the other passengers to write something for us…"

"I understand! You want to get everyone to transcribe something and compare their handwriting to the notes, right?" asked Sabrina.

"Y-Yeah."

"That's a really good idea actually." said Bowla looking pleased.

"But if we just requested them to write their signature with no motivation behind it, they could get suspicious. We require to figure out a way to persuade people to sign it believing it does not mean anything important to them, but it has a reason to be signed anyway." said Sabrina rubbing her chin.

The gang pondered for a bit until Samantha waved her arm. "Oh! Oh! I got one! I got one!"

"This ought to be interesting." Said Mike sarcastically.

Samantha looked a bit excited. "How about this… we make it one of those things that can help buildings improve just by having so many people sign their name? We make it so they think their signature is helping towards our orphanage."

The gang looked at Samantha surprised, then to each other. "Did Samantha just conjure up a brilliant idea?" asked Sabrina.

Gadget dug into his pocket and took out a note pad. "What's the name of your orphanage?"

"Miss Hulgary's Heartful Orphanage." Said Mike.

Gadget wrote down on the top of the sheet and shown them what he wrote down. It said. 'Support Miss Hulgary's Heartful Orphanage.' "How's this?" Gadget asked.

"Perfect." Said Sabrina, she took the note pad and the pen. "Observe."

Sabrina walked up to Luigi and Mandy who just finished cleaning the kitchen. "I beg your pardon, could you sign out requisition? It is to help improve the lives of everyone in Miss Hulgary's Heartful Orphanage; your signature could make a big difference."

"Sure thing." Said Luigi as he took the note and pen and signed his full name, Mandy took them and did the same thing herself and gave it back to Sabrina

"Thank you. You have done a great deed." Sabrina walked back to the others and shown them the signatures, Teo then took out the note and the two did a comparison. Unfortunately, there was no resemblance.

"Nothing." muttered Jack.

"Great plan Teo. Any other bright ideas?" asked Mike sarcastically.

"His plan could still work you idiot." said Bowla. "We haven't gotten all of their names yet."

"We will require everyone's signature on here first." said Sabrina.

Bowla pointed to Mike, Jack and Samantha. "And by 'we', we mean you three."

"Hey why us!?" asked Mike looking annoyed. "I don't do work, I've got people for that."

"You three have done nothing all day. Teo, Sabrina and I have been doing all the work."

"Hey, I tried to help someone find true love!"

"In which you placed that burden on Teo for no reason."

"Which by the way… mission accomplished." Said Teo with the cat-like smirk.

Bowla turns to Teo smirking, and then she faced Mike, Jack and Samantha looking angry. "Lemme put this in words you'd understand, either you get everyone's signatures on this note or I'll burn you alive!"

"Alright! Alright!" Said Mike as he took the note pad and pen from Sabrina. "C'mon you two."

Mike, Jack and Samantha began to walk towards the carriage with rooms six, seven and eight. "Can we get something to eat later?" asked Samantha.

"NO!" Said Mike and Jack.

Gadget walked up to Teo. "Well I must say you kids are certainly something. Tell you what, why don't you three retire to your rooms for the day?"

"A-Are you sure?" asked Teo.

"Of course. You kids did a lot today and I think you deserve a break, allow me to continue the investigation once your friends have finished with getting the signatures."

"Wow, thank you." Said Bowla.

"Not a problem. Oh, I will need that threatening note, so I can make the comparisons."

"Uh… s-sure." Said Teo, he slowly gave the note to Gadget who placed it into his inside pocket.

"Much obliged, now then, I must be off. And don't worry, I'll find the culprit before the train stops." With that Gadget walked off towards the carriage with Rooms Three, Four and Five.

* * *

After Mike, Jack and Samantha got all the signatures, they went back to Room Five where Teo, Bowla and Sabrina were. They killed time by playing a few board games they found in the drawers until it was dinner time at the restaurant carriage. There they had a meal each before going back to Room Five.

"Fish…" Mumbled Teo with contentment as they just came back into their room.

Once they were all in, Sabrina took out an alarm clock from her bag and began to wind it up. "What are you doing?" asked Jack.

"Whether we can unwind or not, the malefactor is still in this train and could still have the means to destroy it. So, I am configuring my alarm for eight in the morning. We need as much time as possible to locate the culprit and prevent his threat to carry out." Sabrina turns to everyone. "And I do not want to hear any complaints. Understood?" Sabrina placed the clock on the desk drawer far from the beds and couches.

"We normally get up at six anyway." Said Teo.

"Except me, I get up at seven." Said Bowla.

"Now we should decide who sleeps where. There are four beds and two couches." said Jack.

"Dibs on the top bunk!" said Mike.

"Dibs on the bottom bunk!" said Jack.

Samantha shrugged her shoulders. "Couch for me then."

"I reckon me and Teo should get the other top and bottom bunks." Said Bowla.

"Hold on a moment, as the self-appointed leader of this troop and most intellectual one here, I should get one of the beds." said Sabrina. "And because you instigated quite a bit of nonsense with your violent threats, I say that you should get the couch."

"Forget it! I want a bed! You get the couch!"

"No one is more deserving of the couch than yourself; may I remind you of what you have done on this train?"

"Is beating you up on that list? Because I wouldn't mind adding that right now!"

"You always preferred brawn over brains! The smartest ones should get the more rewarding methods of sleep."

The two stopped arguing as they noticed Teo with his Baby Bunny getting comfortable on the spare couch; he took off his shoes before stretching a bit. He gave off a quick yawn and then curled up to sleep as he cuddled his stuffed rabbit.

"G-Guess we both get a bed and he gets a couch." Said Bowla.

"It would seem so." Said Sabrina.

Bowla slowly took one of the spare blankets and placed it over Teo. Then everyone else got ready for bed.

"Remember, we're getting up at eight. No later." Said Sabrina.

* * *

Darkness filled the room; the only sounds were the faint whistling sounds of the wind and the rocking sounds and sensation of the train. Everyone slept soundly, this was the most comfortable anyone has ever been sleeping.

However, because they were sound asleep. They never noticed the seventh person in their room; his face could not be seen, but he wore a long jacket with a fedora and long shoes. The person looked around for a bit until he rubbed his hand together. "Ok… gotta do this, it's now or never." He whispered.


	3. The True Culprit

**Chapter 3: The True Culprit**

* * *

Teo began to open his eyes with his senses slowly returning to him. Starting to feel the rocking sensation of the train once again, he lifted his head feeling a bit drowsy, he could go back to sleep, but he knew the alarm was going to go off soon. He looked over to the clock which stood on the drawer between the couches and beds. The big hand was on the twelve and the little hand was on the one, but that didn't mean anything to Teo as he couldn't tell the time.

Teo slowly got out of bed, placing his Baby Bunny under the blanket and picked up the clock. He then made his way to Bowla who slept on the bottom bunk. "Um… B-Bowla?" Teo asked softly as he gently rubbed her back.

Bowla let out a snort and groan before moving up to face Teo with an exhausted look and slight drool coming from her mouth. "What is it?"

"Um… what does the clock say?" Teo moved the clock closer to her.

Bowla takes the clock to examine it with half sleepy eyes. "It says one o clock." she hands it back to Teo.

"Oh… ok thank you." Teo was about to make his way to the bed as Bowla was about to get comfortable. But both of them opened their eyes in absolute shock and faced each other.

"ONE O CLOCK!?"

Their shouting woke the others in shock. They all looked at Teo and Bowla.

"What-What-What is it I didn't do nothing!" said Mike in shock as he was still waking up.

Sabrina climbed down the ladder and took the clock. "We overslept!? We awakened five hours later than intended?!"

"How is that possible?!" asked Jack as he climbed out of bed. "You did set the alarm, right?"

"Of course, I did." said Sabrina, she then looked around. "None of you deactivated the alarm, did you?" everyone said no. "Then who could have?"

"How do you know we'd didn't just sleep through it?" asked Mike as he climbed down the ladder.

"Teo would not have been able to sleep through it." said Sabrina. "He has very delicate hearing, I positioned the clock closer to him, so he would have awakened from it if we didn't."

"Well yeah, I mean Teo can hear faint whispering from about thirty feet away." said Bowla.

At that point, Teo remembered something. "Wait! I-I think someone came into our room."

"What? Seriously?" asked Sabrina.

"I… I think so yeah… I heard some sort of whispering late at night… b-but I thought I was just dreaming."

"What did you hear?" asked Bowla.

"I… I think it was… 'Ok… gotta do this now, it's now or never.' Or something along those lines."

"What the heck does that even mean?" asked Mike. Teo simply shrugged his shoulders.

"So, someone intruded into our room in secrecy and deactivated the alarm." said Sabrina. "The only individual who would do such a bizarre act would be the one set to destroy this train."

"Guys look!" exclaimed Samantha as she pointed to the ground by the door, there they saw a note. Teo walked up to it and picked it up. The others loomed over Teo's shoulder and read the note.

"This is your last warning! I will destroy this train with you in it unless you get off at the next station! Don't even attempt to stop me otherwise I will blow it up prematurely!"

"H-He's onto us." said Teo.

"Blow it up prematurely? Is he really going to bring himself to harm just to prevent us from accomplishing our mission?" asked Sabrina.

They all noticed a PTO on the bottom right meaning Please Turn Over, so they did and found another message. "And don't worry about me; I have explosive proof clothing on, so the blast won't harm me at all. So, HA!"

"Well… ask a question, get an answer." said Sabrina feeling annoyed.

"So now what? Just go home?" asked Mike.

"If we do then no one will have Christmas." said Teo.

"And that means no sweets!" said Samantha. "We have to stop him!"

"We have to locate the culprit now no matter what the cost." said Sabrina.

"But he said he'll blow it up prematurely if we try to stop him." said Jack.

"Then we'll just have to beat the snot out of him before he does!" exclaimed Bowla.

"But we still don't know who the guy is." said Mike.

"Um… I-I think I might know who it is…" Teo showed the others a slight tear at the top of the note. "Um… doesn't this type of paper… come from Mr. Gadget's note pad?"

All of them looked surprised at this, Mike then took the note and looked at it carefully; Jack leaned over to look as well. "I think he's right… for once." said Mike.

Bowla looked surprised at first, but then she giggled. "Oh, that is so cool! The plot-twist… the detective is really the criminal!"

"But… he's been helping us." said Jack looking worried. "If our only help is actually the enemy, what are we gonna do?"

"It is simple… first we require to locate evidence to see if this is accurate… so I recommend we pay the man a visit." said Sabrina.

Everyone was hesitant at first, but they all agreed none the less. So, they made their way out of their room and began to walk towards the carriage which has Room Six. They all entered the restaurant carriage and continued their way to the next door, that was until they saw Samantha about to sit at one of the tables; Bowla dragged her away from it and continued their walk to Room Six. "We'll eat later, fatso."

The gang made it to the front of Room Six. "Now remember." said Sabrina whispering. "We cannot trust Gadget completely, but we cannot let him know we're onto him if he is indeed the culprit. So, act casual."

Mike opened the door, but they were surprised to see that Inspector Gadget already had a visitor, it was Sharpfin. The kids walked in while they had their conversation.

Gadget noticed them and waved quickly with the robotic arm in his hat. "Ah kids, perfect timing. Another predicament has arisen."

"What's going on?" asked Bowla.

"I'll tell you what's going on. Last night someone snuck into my room and pinched my briefcase." said Sharpfin looking furious.

"Wait? The one with the engine parts in it?" asked Sabrina.

"That's the one."

Teo felt nervous. "Um… d-didn't you say… that the liquids in them were… volatile?"

"That's what worries me the most." said Sharpfin. "It can only go off when mixed with three ingredients… diamonds, bone marrow and newt's eye."

"D-Diamonds and bone marrow?!" exclaimed Teo. "T-Two girls said they were missing a necklace each, one was made of diamonds and the other was made of dinosaur bones."

"That's two of the three ingredients!" exclaimed Gadget. "All that's left is a newt's eye. If the one who stole the briefcase also has the two necklaces, they can carry out the threat."

During the entire conversation, Sabrina snuck her way to Gadget's notepad which was left on top of the drawer. She flipped through it until she had found a slight tear in on one of the edges; she then took out the second note and gently placed it onto the torn edge. Sabrina's eyes widened, it was a perfect match. The threat was written on Gadget's note pad, meaning he could very well be the culprit. She immediately placed the note pad back down, hid the second note and snuck back to the others unnoticed.

"So much for being 'next to nothing' right Sharpfin?" asked Bowla looking smug.

"Now's not the time. We gotta get out there and find the guy before he blows up this train." said Sharpfin.

"The train's next stop is in one hour." said Gadget looking at a small clock which his robotic hand held. "So, we have until then to find and stop him."

"Then let's get moving." With that, Sharpfin walked out of the room and began to walk along the hallways.

Teo watched Sharpfin leave, and then he turned to Gadget. "Um… about getting the signatures…"

"Oh right, I almost forgot." Gadget picked up his note pad and started flicking through the pages until he found all the signatures, he then shown the kids it. "I did a comparison with the note you gave me yesterday, unfortunately, not a single match. Whoever wrote the note must've changed his handwriting."

"So, it looks like we're going back to square one." Said Jack. "Might as well just look around the old-fashioned way."

"This train is made up of six sections. The train itself, three room carriages, the restaurant carriage and the storage carriage." Said Gadget

"So that's a room each if the six of us split up." Said Bowla crossing her arms.

"Now then, I'm going to start my search too." Said Gadget as he pulled out a magnifying glass.

"I better accompany you Mr. Gadget." Said Sabrina walking up to him. "There is safety in numbers."

"Sure thing." With that Gadget and Sabrina walked off, before Sabrina was out of sight, she winked to the others before disappearing.

"S-So that leaves just us five." Said Teo.

"Not quite." Said Bowla smirking. "Come with me."

They all followed Bowla out of Room Six and towards Room Eight and she knocked on the door. There they saw Edd once more. "Oh, hello again, what can I do for you?"

"Is that those kids again?" asked Eddy, he and Ed walked up to the door as well.

"Remember when you said you'd help us if we needed it?" asked Bowla. "Well we need your help."

Edd looked over to Eddy who simply shrugged his shoulders. "We did agree so…"

"Good. Someone here has stolen Mr. Sharpfin's briefcase, they had also stolen Mandy's dinosaur bone necklace and Trixie's diamond necklace."

Eddy's eyed widened. "So that jerk has the nerve to mess with my chances of dating that hot chick!? Ok, so you want us to help you find the thief?"

"Yep. We have one hour before the train stops and the thief gets away." Said Bowla.

Teo stepped forward. "B-But… the thief is dangerous, and we don't know who it is, please try to find out in secret."

Eddy nodded. "Ok, come on boys, let's move out." The three Eds left their room and walked towards the restaurant carriage.

"Ok, I suggest we split up into teams." Said Jack as he fixed his glasses. "Mike and I will search the carriage with our room."

"Teo, Samantha and I will search this carriage then." Said Bowla.

Mike and Jack nodded and made their way towards the next carriage. Teo then turns to Bowla feeling confused. "Um… d-did we just cooperate with the orphanage's biggest bullies with no violence whatsoever and actually made progress?"

Bowla shrugged her shoulders. "Hm. Guess we did." She then pats Teo on the head. "Well done, you're using those big words better."

* * *

Mike and Jack had just entered the restaurant carriage; there they saw the three Eds talking to Chip Skylark. "I'm really sorry." Said Chip. "I haven't seen any necklaces, but if I see anyone with one I'll let you know."

"Thanks Mr. Skylark." Said Edd looking cheerful.

"Please, just call me Chip." With that he walked off to the next carriage.

"Y'Know he could've had one of them." Said Mike as he and Jack walked up to the Eds.

"We already searched his pockets. We found nothing." Said Eddy.

"Not even a potato." Said Ed looking pouty.

"Well whatever, we're gonna search the next carriage." Said Mike.

"We're going to continue looking here, and then we'll head to the front of the train." Said Edd.

"Good luck… to both of us." Said Jack. The two then made their way to the next carriage.

As Mike and Jack walked along the carriage, they were about to make their way into Room three until Jack turned to the door leading to Room Four. "Hey Mike."

Mike turned to Jack. "What?"

"You know… we've met almost everyone on this train, but none of them go to this room here."

"It's obvious, isn't it? No one had a ticket for this room."

"Well… y-yeah… but what if there is someone in that room? He could be the culprit."

Mike stared at the door for a bit, and then quietly shushed Jack. He slowly crept to the door. And then quickly opened it shouting "AH-HAH!"

But there was no one in the room, the two walked in and looked around for a bit. "Hm, guess not." Said Mike. "Well let's go."

"Wait! Keep quiet, I hear something." Said Jack. The two-kept quiet for a minute or so, at that point, Mike could hear something too. It sounded like quiet breathing.

The two looked up at the top bunk bed on the right side. That was where the noise was coming from. Mike immediately volunteered Jack to check the noise by pushing him closer to the ladder; Jack rolled his eyes and began to slowly climb up, he slowly peeked his head up and saw what was making the noise.

There sleeping on the bed, was a small white Persian cat with a blue neckerchief, it was curled up on the pillow. Jack turns to Mike "Check it out, it's a cat." He whispered.

Jack climbed down the ladder to let Mike climb up. Mike raised an eyebrow seeing this cat; he then climbed down the ladder and faced Jack. "What's a cat doing here?"

"I don't know?" said Jack shrugging his shoulders. "Sure, is cute though."

"Yeah…" Mike turned to the bed, then back to Jack. "Well there's nothing else here, might as well look somewhere else."

Jack nodded and the two walked out of the room, they left the door slightly open for the cat to get out when it wants to. Then made their way to Room Three to search around, the Heavy Weapons Guy was in the restaurant carriage so now was a good time to search searching.

* * *

Back in the other carriage. Because Rooms Six, Seven and Eight were all vacant, Teo, Bowla and Samantha took a room each to search from top to bottom. After about a few minutes of this, the three exited each of the rooms and met up near the middle of the carriage. "Anything?" asked Bowla.

"N-No… sorry." Said Teo.

"Nothing." Said Samantha, but then she took out a bottle cap. "But I found this, pretty cool huh?"

Bowla chose to ignore her. "I didn't find anything either. It wouldn't be easy to hide a briefcase that big."

Teo turned to the other side looking towards the door the conductor stood in front of. "M-Maybe in there?"

Bowla and Samantha turned to where Teo was facing. "The storage carriage? Worth a shot." Said Bowla.

The three walked up to the conductor who looked down to them. "Ah, Teo again… what can I do for you?"

"Can we go into the next carriage please?" asked Samantha sweetly.

The conductor looked a bit surprised. "I'm sorry?"

"We're looking for something important, we think it might be in the storage carriage." Said Bowla.

"I am sorry, but only staff members are allowed in here."

"Um… w-what if we had a member of staff accompanying us?" asked Teo.

The conductor rubbed his chin. "Hmm… well I suppose it's alright then…" he then took out a small walkie talkie and spoke into it. "Excuse me, Yen? Are you there?"

"I'm here, what's up?"

"Would you mind coming to the storage carriage door? I have a small request."

"Sure, hold on."

Everyone waited for a minute or so until Yen arrived, Teo recognized him from yesterday when Mandy mentioned him. "So, what do you need?" asked Yen.

"I was wondering if you wouldn't mind keeping an eye on these children while they search the storage carriage. They said they were looking for something important."

"Sure thing." Said Yen.

The conductor nodded and moved out of the way of the door while unlocking it. "You kids have fifteen minutes."

"T-Thank you." Said Teo as he and the others entered the carriage.

* * *

Sabrina and Gadget in the carriage with Rooms One and Two; as Sabrina looked up to Gadget who continued to search around the halls, she grew more and more suspicious with every minute, the second note was indeed written on Gadget's note pad and the tear marks between the pad and note were a perfect match, additionally, he sent them to solve the missing pan mystery yesterday while keeping Samantha hostage, all it resulted in was wasted time which could have been spent on searching for the culprit. Finally, giving out the four main suspects could have been a simple diversion just to waste more time, and deliberately turning the alarm off so they would have even less time.

Sabrina was determined to find the culprit, and so far, the signs were pointing to Gadget. But she needed absolute proof, and the only way she would get proof was to stay with Gadget and find anything that could point to him as the culprit.

Gadget turned to Sabrina who changed her look from determined and suspicious to neutral in a flash. "Anything?" he asked.

"No, nothing." Said Sabrina.

"Ok, let's check the front of the train." Gadget and Sabrina walked up to the next door and he opened it letting them both in.

Sabrina grew a bit surprised; this was the engine room of the train. It was very spacious with machinery within the walls and ceiling, there stood a single driver who kept his hands close to the controls. He heard the two entering and turned to see who it was. He then pointed to a sign saying 'Don't talk to the driver. And don't touch the machinery.'

Gadget merely saluted as a reply, Sabrina however was very tempted to touch at least one button. Breaking rules and causing mischief was her favourite thing to do, but she knew now was a bad time to do so. She simply pretended to search while keeping an eye on Gadget as he examined the machinery and the few boxes which sat on the floor. As gadget opened another box he took out a small jar to examine it, the jar was full of a green liquid and had a few small eyeballs in it.

Sabrina's eyes widened, the eyes looked small enough to belong to a newt. Meaning that jar could contain the third ingredient.

"Could these eyes belong to newts? Poor things." Said Gadget, "None the less, we found the third ingredient."

Sabrina immediately jumped up and snatched the bottle from Gadget's hands. "I better keep a hold of this just to be safe."

Gadget merely scratched his head in confusion. "Well if you insist, but be careful. If the culprit discovers you have it, he could go after you."

Sabrina places the jar into one of her large sleeves. "I assure you, I will be fine."

"Well in any case, now that we have the third ingredient, we can at least guarantee the threat won't be carried out as the designated time."

"Not quite, for all we know, the culprit already has his own. Even if he doesn't, he still has to be stopped."

"I couldn't agree more. Let's head back to the next carriage to continue our investigation, I don't think there is anything else here for us to search."

Sabrina nodded and the two exited the engine room and back into the carriage with Rooms One and Two. The two continued to walk along the corridors.

"I sure hope the culprit doesn't have his own copy of the third ingredient." Said Gadget.

"Agreed, but I'm convinced this perpetrator is not thoughtless enough to make a threat deprived of access to all the essential components. Right Gadget?" There was no reply. "Gadget?"

Sabrina slowly turns around, but all she saw right in front of her was a giant fist before everything turned dark.

* * *

Teo, Bowla and Samantha continued their search through the storage carriage while Yen watched them. The kids searched through several boxes containing all sorts of knickknacks, old books and toys and several other objects.

"So, what are you kids looking for exactly?" asked Yen.

"Um… M-Mr. Sharpfin's briefcase." Said Teo.

"Sharpfin? Did he lose it or something?"

"N-No…I-"

"Someone stole it." Said Bowla interrupting Teo.

Yen's eyes widened slightly. "Stolen?"

"We're helping him look for it, as well as two necklaces that went missing."

Yen raised an eyebrow feeling concerned. "Necklaces… was one of them made of dinosaur bones?"

Teo nodded. "Y-Yeah… y-you gave Mandy that… didn't you?"

"I did… I had no idea what to get her, so I merely guessed. Something that wasn't too girly since she's not like that, but at the same not too gothic or barbaric… ah well, I'm sure she's not hurting over it."

"Um… a-actually… she told me she was quite glad, and she really wanted to find it before the train stops." Said Teo.

Yen looked quite surprised. "She… she actually liked my gift to her…? I knew she didn't mind it because she didn't hit me or anything… but to think she actually liked it and didn't tell me."

"Why didn't she tell you she liked it?" asked Samantha.

"Mandy has a lot of pride and thinks love is a pointless emotion, although we've been dating and talking for a good few months now, she still doesn't like to admit it."

"She's never once said I love you?" asked Bowla.

"Not once… but I'm not gonna beg her for it… I'm happy just being with her. Even if she doesn't truly love me."

"Um… M-Mandy did blush a bit when I asked her if you were her boyfriend." Said Teo.

"She always blushes when that subject arises." Said Yen with the faintest smiles. "She certainly looks cute when she does."

At that point, the conductor opened the door and walked in slightly. "Alright kids, fifteen minutes are up."

"B-But we haven't finished searching." Said Bowla looking annoyed.

"Don't worry, I'll keep looking." Said Yen. "It's Sharpfin's briefcase, Mandy's necklace and another necklace, right?"

"I-It's Trixie's necklace… if y-you find it… could you um, give it to Eddy?" asked Teo.

"Why Eddy?"

"H-He wants to return it to her himself."

Yen shrugged his shoulders. "Well alright." The kids all walked out while Yen continued to search for the items.

Once the kids were out, the conductor closed the door. The kids then began to walk away going towards the restaurant carriage.

"Can we get some lunch?" asked Samantha.

"We still haven't found the culprit. And we haven't got long left before the train stops." Said Bowla.

"But I'm starving." Said Samantha.

Teo sighs. "Why don't we let Samantha eat and we'll continue the search?"

At that point, Bowla's stomach growled too. "G-Guess I'm a bit hungry too." She chuckled. "Guess we can have a small something, but we get back to work straight after."

As the two entered the restaurant carriage, Bowla and Samantha took a seat at one of the tables. Bowla noticed Teo wasn't. "Not gonna eat?"

"I-I'm not hungry yet, I'm gonna keep searching for a bit."

"Ok, good luck." Said Bowla.

"Have fun." Said Samantha cheerily.

"T-Thanks." With that, Teo walked off to the next carriage. He noticed the only people in this carriage are Sharpfin, the Eds, Mandy, Mr. Stan in his shop and the Heavy Weapons Guy cooking with Luigi.

* * *

Mike and Jack had just left Room Three feeling annoyed. "Still nothing." Grumbled Mike.

The two noticed Inspector Gadget walking into the room rubbing his head. "Mr. Gadget? Where's Sabrina?" asked Jack.

"I don't know… one minute we were walking together. The next everything went dark for a few seconds and now she's missing."

"Missing? Where could she have gone?" asked Mike.

"I'm looking now, what's worse is that she had a jar with the eyes of newt. The last ingredient meant for blowing up the train. You kids keep an eye out for her too." Gadget walked past them, but Jack noticed something about his pocket.

"Hey Gadget? What's that in your pocket?"

Gadget stopped and looked at his pocket. He then dug into it and took out the jar of newt eyes. "It's the jar Sabrina had… but what's it doing in my pocket?"

Mike and Jack grew really suspicious. "Good question." Said Mike. He immediately ran back into Room Three and came out with two large sticks and handed one to Jack. "Care to play piñata with the culprit?"

"With pleasure."

Gadget looked at the two feeling nervous, then Mike and Jack charged towards him making Gadget run for it.

As Teo just entered the carriage, he noticed Gadget running past him with Mike and Jack soon following. "We found the culprit!" shouted Mike.

"S-Seriously?" Teo was about to chase after Gadget too until he heard a loud meow. Teo stopped and turned around to see the Persian cat from Room Four. "A… cat? I didn't know there was a cat in this train." The cat meowed a few times. Luckily for Teo, he can understand cats like they're in plain English. "Gadget's not the bad guy? Then who is?"

The cat ran towards the carriage with Rooms One and Two making Teo follow it. As Teo and the cat entered the next carriage, the cat stopped in between the two doors and sat there. Teo slowly stopped and looked around. He was about to speak again but the speakers at the top spoke first.

"Attention passengers, we will arrive at Mahogany Station in ten minutes please make sure to bring all your personal belongings and have a nice day."

Teo felt very worried, they only have ten minutes before the culprit blows up the train. At that point, the door to Room One opened revealing Chip Skylark with a large single shoulder bag. He noticed Teo and waved. "Oh, hi Teo. Heard you were looking for a briefcase someone stole." Chip said as he pointed his two fingers at him as a compliment. "Even when relaxing you like to help others."

T-Thank you." Teo noticed something on his left index and middle finger, a long cut along the two. "Um… w-what happened to your hand?"

"Oh this, just a little paper cut I got from signing autographs." He lifted up the bag a bit. "Well… looking forward to my next stop, I've got a concert to sing at, man I just love my fans. Hope I don't get any more paper cuts signing autographs." He soon began to walk past him. "Well I gotta go, good luck finding the guy before he blows up the train."

"T-Thanks." Said Teo as he watched Chip walk away, suddenly it just came to him. "Wait! Hang on a second!"

Chip stopped and turned to him. "What's up?"

"What did you say?"

Chip turned around to face him. "I said good luck finding the guy before he blows up the train."

"Y-Yeah… but how did you know someone was planning to blow up this train?"

Chip stepped back feeling a bit nervous. "Um… Mr. Gadget told me."

"But he said he never told anyone except for me and my friends… and Mike and Jack. So how did you know?"

Chip took another step back. "I… uh I."

Teo looked down to the cat glaring at Chip fiercely. Then Teo did the same thing. ' _That cut on his finger, that's not from signing autographs, that's from pushing the note under our door!_ '

Teo slowly placed his hands on the floor looking like he was ready to pounce like a wild cat, his claws gripped the carpeting, he opened his mouth revealing his fangs, his tail swished from side to side and the pupils in his eyes shrunk. He then looked over to Chip's bag. "What's in the bag?"

"Uh… m-my singing equipment."

"I see… how about opening it and letting me take a look at your… singing equipment." He growled. His eyes grew fiercer and he looked as if he was ready to strike at any second.

Chip took one more step back, but then he grew angry. "NO!"

Teo took that as his opportunity, he suddenly jumped up high screaming like a wild cat towards the terrified Chip's face. As Teo attacked him, the cat looked over to Room One and ran into it. It ran under the left bed and there it saw the conscious Sabrina tied up and gagged, the cat ran onto her back and started to claw at the ropes.

* * *

Back in the restaurant carriage. Everyone – besides Trixie and her group - surrounded Gadget who was tied up and hung upside down like Stan was yesterday. "It's obvious he's the culprit, a note from his note pad was given to us threatening he would blow up the train." Mike then shows them the jar of newt eyes. "And Gadget had these in his pocket. The third ingredient to blowing up this train."

"B-BLOWING IT UP?!" exclaimed everyone besides Bowla, Samantha, Jack and Sharpfin.

"I might have guessed it was you all along Gadget. I mean seriously, how do detectives like you always arrive at the scene of s crime?" asked Eddy.

Sharpfin took the jar of newt eyes and took a closer look. "Now all we need to do is find out where Gadget hid the other things he stole." Gloated Mike, he then turned to Bowla. "So, what do you think ey? I was more than capable of finding the culprit way before Teo, that's worth being my girlfriend, right?" Bowla simply rolled her eyes sighing in frustration.

"These aren't newt eyes!" exclaimed Sharpfin. Everyone looked over to Sharpfin surprised. "These are toad eyes."

"What?! H-How can you tell?!" asked Mike.

Sharpfin looked up to Gadget. "These things would never set off the chemical reaction, in fact it would just make them all melt into a pile of green gloop making it completely harmless."

Suddenly the door to the next carriage busted open revealing Chip Skylark desperately trying to get the scratching and biting Teo off him. "GET OFF! GET OFF! GET OFF!"

"Teo what are you doing?!" exclaimed Bowla.

Sabrina and the cat ran into the restaurant carriage. "Chip Skylark is the real perpetrator!"

Chip managed to throw Teo off of him, but he had his claws right into his face and pulled it off completely making a very loud ripping sound.

As Teo landed on the ground, he had Chip's face in his hands, revealing to be a mask. They all looked in shock to see Chip now had a large green head with giant red big eyes and two antennas.

Mandy's eyes widened slightly. "That's not Chip Skylark! I recognize that pathetic face from anywhere, that's Zim, that annoying alien who's given my friend Gaz a lot of trouble in the past!"

Zim immediately pulled out a large knife from his pocket and threw it towards Teo, but Teo immediately jumped and caught it, in which he quickly threw it back surprising Zim as he jumped to the right making the knife hit the strap on his bag cutting it and causing the bag to fall down. Zim was about to grab the bag, but Teo jumped and latched onto his face and started scratching and biting causing him to stumble back. "RELEASE ME AT ONCE YOU TAILED FOOL! OR FEEL THE UNENDING WRATH AND DOOM OF ZIM!"

Sabrina immediately grabbed the bag and ran towards the others. Sharpfin opened is and there inside was Sharpfin's briefcase, the two necklaces and a jar of eyeballs. Mandy immediately grabbed the dinosaur bone necklace while Eddy grabbed the diamond one.

Zim grabbed Teo and threw him onto a table smashing it. "GO-GO GADGET ARM!" Zim turned around only to see the freed Gadget extending his right arm and sucker punching Zim across the carriage smacking him into the wall.

Zim immediately got back up and tore off the rest of his disguise revealing his true appearance, wearing a red metallic looking suit with black leggings and a round backpack. The backpack opened up making four thin metal legs which lifted him up. He then took out two alien-looking pistols and started shooting at the crowd who all began to dodge the lasers.

Bowla jumped forward and took a deep breath, then she unleashed a massive surge of fire from her mouth aiming towards Zim, but he quickly dodged making the flames hit the wall which set it alight. Zim continued his attack ignoring the fire. That was until Mike and Samantha grabbed a metal leg each and began to pull causing Zim to lose his balance and fall onto the ground face first. Gadget immediately ran up to the fire. "Go-Go Fire Extinguisher!" a small fire extinguisher being held by a robotic hand came out of Gadget's hat and began putting out the fire while Zim got up and was about to attack Mike and Samantha, but that was until Jack and Luigi began throwing pans and kitchen utensils at him. But he jumped back reading to attack them with his pistol.

Sabrina jumped to the side and opened up her right sleeve and out came a giant extendable boxing glove which shot forward and punched Zim right in the face sending him flying, but he quickly stuck his metal legs onto the ceiling and began firing his pistol once more at them, with them dodging every shot. Teo jumped up and spun making his tail smack Zim in the face, making Zim change his target to Teo who began to dodge the lasers.

Sabrina ran up to Bowla while Zim was distracted. "I informed you before that your fire breath would set the train alight!"

"I think now would be the best time to use it!" said Bowla.

"The power is there but the flames are too immense and it is not expeditious enough to strike efficiently. We need a method to increase its speed and precision as well as reducing its size so as to not damage anything else."

"That means making it smaller and faster, right?"

"Correct." Sabrina looked around to see if there was anything they could use. She then noticed something in the kitchen. "Come on Bowla."

Jack and Luigi tried to throw more utensils at Zim, but he used his other two legs to smack Jack and Luigi away, only to have the Heavy Weapons Guy grab the two and start spinning Zim around until the legs snapped off and Zim was sent flying, but his backpack brought out small thrusters which kept him airborne leaving his last two metal legs dangling. But the tips of them immediately turned into four fingered claws. "Ready for Round Two!?" asked Zim as he prepared his pistols.

Teo jumped forward with his claws ready. Zim fired his pistols which Teo dodged easily and jumped up digging his claws into Zim's arms and threw his fangs into Zim's right shoulder. He grunted in pain for a second until one of the metal claws grabbed Teo and tried to pull him off.

Mandy ran towards the distracted Zim and grabbed the second metal claw; she then threw her right elbow into it smashing it to pieces, Eddy and Ed ran forward and threw a cherry bomb each at the other claw releasing Teo. Teo then removed his claws and fangs and immediately swiped his claws down Zim's face whom let out an agonizing wail of pain, but then he grabbed Teo's neck and moved him back and pointed one of his pistols directly at his forehead. But Teo tipped his head back in time dodging the blast and he wrapped his arms, legs and tail around the arm that held his neck and sunk his claws into his wrist and bit his hand.

Just before Zim could shoot again, Edd shot a cherry bomb from his slingshot blasting his backpack, damaging the thrusters and causing him to lose his balance. Teo immediately let go and ran back. Zim growled furiously and flew towards Teo. "YOU'LL NEVER SAVE CHRISTMAS!"

Teo smirked as he jumped to the side revealing Bowla and Sabrina holding onto a large pipe. Bowla had her mouth in one end and Sabrina held it on the other end. Zim grew scared and had no time to fly out of the way.

Sabrina pointed to Zim. "FIRE!"

Bowla breathed fire into the pipe and it shot out of the other end as a large fireball which blasted Zim sending him back, he stumbled backward a lot spinning a bit. But once he faced the other way, Yen came out of nowhere and shot his right foot into Zim's jaw sending him flying right over the crowd and was embedded into the wall on the other side. He then fell onto the ground unconscious.

Everyone surrounded the unconscious Zim looking surprised. "Good effort everyone." Said Edd.

"And thanks to you kids, my briefcase and its contents are safe and sound, and you saved this train from being blown up by that green freak." Said Sharpfin.

"Gotta hand it to you, for a bunch of little kids you pack a punch." Said Mandy.

"Well what can I say; I'm a hero by nature." Said the smug looking Mike.

"But Teo truly saved the day." Said Bowla making Mike annoyed and Teo blush.

"I say it was our team work." Said Luigi, "Most if not all of us chipped in to stop this Zim creature."

Teo turned to Zim. "So… what do we do with him?"

Bowla let out a devilish smirk. "Anyone got a cheese grater or a bread knife?" soon Bowla shook his head. "Nah… it's Christmas, I have a better idea."

* * *

The train made its stop at Mahogany Station to refuel, there the kids, Sharpfin, Mandy, Yen and the Eds all stood around the furious Zim.

"RELEASE ME AT ONCE! DON'T YOU KNOW IT IS AN IDIOTIC MISTAKE TO MESS WITH ZIM OR THE EVIL BUDDIES?!" he shouted as he tried to get free of the giant rocket he was tied to.

"It's also an idiotic mistake to mess with Christmas!" said Bowla.

"You are associates with the men who shanghaied Santa, correct?" asked Sabrina. "Evil Buddies is a rather thoughtless name."

"Seems pretty out-of-character for you to be following orders or working alongside others." Said Mandy. "What's the matter? Getting sick of being the loser?"

"I'll have you know that I am only working with them so that I can obtain five different planets for my own if Dr Doofenshmirtz's plan works! And I will make it so all five of those planets will celebrate Doofmas!"

"Doofmas?" asked Sabrina. "So, this Doofenshmirtz character is planning on replacing Christmas?"

Zim turns his head. "I'm not saying another word!"

"That is acceptable, we got an adequate amount of information nevertheless." Said Sabrina.

The Eds began to adjust the rocket so it was aiming towards the mountains several hundred miles away. "That tallest one there is Freezer Mountain." Said Sharpfin. "That's where they're keeping Santa prisoner right?"

Teo nodded. "Y-Yeah."

"Allow me." Said Bowla calmly as she walks up to the fuse and spits out a small burst of fire from her mouth lighting it. Then everyone stepped back.

"Give your Evil Buddies a message! TELL THEM WE'RE RESCUING SANTA!" Shouted Mike.

At that point, the rocket flew up high aiming towards Freezer Mountain with Zim screaming all the way as everyone waved goodbye to him.

Teo could finally relax, now that the threat to destroy the train was over, but he still felt tense, he knew this would not be the last time the enemy will not try to stop them, he knew he had to prepare for their next attack whether or not it would be on the train. He also wondered about the cat earlier, how it knew who the real culprit was and why did it help him, Teo looked back at the train seeing the cat walk back into the train and made its way back to Room Four.


	4. Mahogany Station

**Chapter 4: Mahogany Station**

* * *

In the castle on Freezer Mountain, we find Dr Doofenshmirtz and the Ice King playing checkers in the main quarters where Santa stood in his cage. "Ha! King me sucker!" exclaimed Ice King.

"You may have been crowned this time! But I will prevail!" said Doofenshmirtz as he placed a checker piece onto the Ice King's.

"Can I play winner?" asked Santa.

At that point, the doors shot open revealing the burnt up Zim who weakly walked up to the surprised two.

"What happened? Did you forget to put on your explosive-proof undies?" asked Doofenshmirtz.

Zim let out a loud cough releasing a big black cloud of smoke from his mouth. "Uh… the kids… proved to be… a teensy-teeny-tiny bit more challenging than I had anticipated."

"In other words, the train didn't go boom and the kids are still on their way." Said the Ice King sighing.

"This IS a bit problematic." Said Doofenshmirtz rubbing his chin.

"I did say they would be more than enough to take you down." Said Santa chuckling. "Might be a good idea to give up now before they humiliate you more."

"SILENCE SANTA!" shouted Zim as he pointed to him. "This was a mere setback. My true might will be sure to bring those little human-brats to their untimely painful and oh so explicated DOOM!"

"He's enthusiastic, I'll give him that." Said Ice King.

Doofenshmirtz stood up and faced Santa. "Eh, it's no matter, I planned ahead. Even if Zim were to fail, that train won't be moving anytime soon. Plus, we set up a little surprise for them further down the line. It'll be sure to DERAIL their plans!"

Ice King, Zim and Santa all groaned at his joke. "Really?! You went there?!" Asked Ice King.

"Oh, I sure did!"

* * *

Back at the train, we find the kids in the restaurant carriage having some lunch; Bowla and Samantha didn't get any earlier due to their interruption. Everyone had different orders except for Teo, he chose a different fish meal. The kids continued their lunch while having a light chat, all except for Teo of course since he had social problems. He was also thinking about what had happened today, finding the real culprit and stopping him before he destroyed the train, he felt more at ease, but he still felt somewhat tense as he knew this wouldn't be the Evil Buddies only attempt to stop them, he just couldn't help but think what they would try next and if whether they could stop it.

"Enjoying your meals so far?" asked Luigi as he walked up to them alongside Mandy who was wearing her dinosaur bone necklace.

"Even better than yesterdays!" said Mike holding two thumbs up with a mouth full of food.

"Either swallow your food and then talk, or don't talk at all." Said Sabrina, she then turned to Mike. "On second thought, just don't talk anyway."

"Good to know." Chuckled Luigi, "I put in some extra effort for you kids as a thank-you gift for stopping that alien."

"Thanks, such a shame we still have more to do." Said Jack.

"What can we say, us heroes never get a break… well really I'm the hero and they're all my sidekicks." Gloated Mike.

"Sidekicks who don't have to listen to you AND can kick your caboose left right and centre." Said Bowla looking annoyed.

Teo realized something. "Um… this train hasn't moved yet."

"Well duh! We're refuelling, we can't move while we're getting more fuel dummy." Mike turned to Bowla. "Seriously, what do you see in this tailed-idiot?"

"Teo's right actually." Said Mandy looking out the window. "It takes three minutes to refuel; we've been here for ten."

"Something must be wrong with the train." Muttered Teo.

"I believe it may well have something to do with the repairs being done." Said Sabrina. "Bowla's fire breath produced some damage to the train, plus with how many fractures and indentations Zim made into the walls and floors. I doubt anybody would want to ride or drive a train with damages like that."

"Even so, they weren't that bad." Luigi looked over to some of the damages being repaired by Yen, Gadget and Stan. "Mind you I'm no expert on trains, I just cook."

Teo felt some sort of unnerving feeling about all this, he chomped down on the last of his fish. "I-I'll be right back." He got off his chair and made his way to the next carriage leaving the others behind feeling confused.

Teo entered Room Five and picked up his winter clothing and placed them on as quick as he could, then he made his way to the door leading outside the train. He opened the door and slowly walked down the steps to look outside.

Teo saw something that didn't seem good; he saw one of the staff members looking at some barriers blocking the tracks as well as a raised drawbridge. He slowly walked up to the staff member looking puzzled. "Um...e-excuse me."

The man turned to see Teo. "Oh, can I help you?"

"Um... I-Is there something um, w-wrong with the train?"

The man raised an eyebrow feeling a bit confused by his question, but he turned to the drawbridge. "Well nothing wrong with the train per say…"

"What do you mean?" the two turned to see Bowla and the other kids – in their winter clothing – walking up to them.

"Well uh… you see the draw bridge is up, we can't cross the bridge if it's up like that."

"Well just bring it down, throw the switch." Said Bowla.

"I'm afraid it's not so simple." The man pointed to the station where they stopped at.

The kids grew surprised to see Mahogany Station itself. It was completely abandoned, the windows were smashed, the walls and roofs were cracked, it had a load of rubbish everywhere. It was a complete mess.

"Mahogany Station was abandoned in the 1930s ever since the town got a new station much closer to it. Nowadays our train is the only one that visits it because despite that no one works here, fuel still gets delivered to the pumps here for our train only… because it's been abandoned for so long, no one knows where the lever to the drawbridge is."

"Can't be too hard to find." Said Jack fixing his glasses.

"But given its conditions, I doubt anyone would want to enter that facility." Said Sabrina.

"The station has broken in a few places due to the cold and high winds, plus so much snow has built up in that place, it's difficult to get through without a team of expert snow-removers." Said the man.

Sabrina got an idea and turned to Bowla. "Hey Bowla, your fire breath might be able to liquesce the snow."

"Really? Cool, let's get burning!"

"Not so fast." Said the man. "Kids like you shouldn't wander into abandoned buildings… even if you were allowed to, your 'fire breath' might burn the entire station down on top of you."

"So, we need a controlled fire like earlier." Said Sabrina.

"Excuse me, you're not listening. Kids like you shouldn't be wandering around abandoned buildings." Said the man looking annoyed.

Bowla looks up to the man. "My daddy just so happens to be a mafia boss! Does Mervaradi ring a bell?" the man flinched slightly. "Besides, the lever for the drawbridge needs to be pulled, right? Well I don't see you going in there and doing it yourself. So, I say that we should go get the job done while you just stand there staring at the raised drawbridge while sulking!"

The man stepped back more. Teo let out a slight chuckle. "Y-You certainly scared him."

Bowla chuckled herself and faced Teo. "Tell you what, why don't you get back onto the train and relax a little?"

Teo looked surprised hearing that. "But… um… w-why?"

"You've done a lot today, you deserve a break." Said Bowla smiling, "Me and Sabrina can handle this just fine."

Sabrina raised an eye brow. "Why me?"

"If you think I'm going in there by myself you have another thing coming, I need someone just as competent as Teo and you're as competent as they get." Sabrina shrugged her shoulders in agreement.

"What do you mean?!" asked Mike looking angry "I'm way more competent than Teo! In fact, almost everyone is way more useful than him!"

"Whether or not you are, I'm far more than capable of helping Bowla out than you lot put together." Said Sabrina, she then turns to Teo. "As for usefulness, wasn't it Teo who found the one who threatened to destroy the train just in time while you went after the wrong man?"

"Oh please, I knew hands down it was Chip all along, I just pretended I didn't know to let him drop his guard for me to strike when he least expects it!" Mike closed his eyes looking smug as he crossed his arms. "I know, amazing, right? I also knew he was some kind of freaky alien! Does make me wonder why you prefer that little wimpy cat over a fantastic guy like me."

"Um… Bowla and Sabrina already left." Said Teo.

Mike opened his eyes in shock as he looked around seeing Bowla and Sabrina were indeed gone. "Hey! What gives! I was in the middle of talking."

"They did seem in a bit of a hurry actually." Said Teo looking concerned as he looked over to the abandoned station the girls were going to.

"Wait for me!" shouted Mike as he ran ahead. "An innocent girl like you shouldn't go without a brave hero like me!"

"W-Wait up!" exclaimed Jack as he ran after Mike.

Only Teo and Samantha were left behind. Teo felt a bit worried about Bowla, but he felt even more worried for anything that would get in her way. He felt the need to help Bowla, but he knew Mike and Jack would get in the way and Bowla did insist on him staying behind and arguing with her was a bad idea. Now that Teo thought about it, Mike and Jack were going to be leaving him alone for a while and he knew Bowla and Sabrina would be safe in their own. He grew a small smile knowing exactly what he could do, so he calmly walked back into the train with Samantha slowly following.

' _Now that both Mike and Jack are gone for a while, and with Bowla not pestering me into loving her and Sabrina not going to do any of her tricks… I can finally do what I want for a while, all the things I couldn't normally do because of them around._ ' Thought Teo feeling a bit excited.

As he and Samantha entered their room and took their winter clothing off. Teo immediately climbed up onto his couch, picked up his Baby Bunny and curled up to take a nap. Samantha noticed this and felt she should leave him alone while he sleeps. "I bet the restaurants still open." Whispered Samantha. With that she left Room Five and walked down towards the restaurant carriage.

* * *

Meanwhile, we find Eddy walking up to Room Two and knocked at it. There the two boys wearing purple jackets opened the door. "Oh, it's you again… didn't Trixie tell you to beat it?" asked the blonde boy.

"She said if I was able to find something that she liked, she'd go on a date with me." Said Eddy raising an eyebrow. "Well I have the perfect thing for her, so I'd like to speak to her now."

"Don't bother wasting her time with some sort of gaudy knickknack you got from that little shop." Said the black-haired boy. "Now do us a favour and beat it!"

Eddy gave an annoyed scoff, he then cleared his throat. "HEY TRIXIE! WE HAD A DEAL RIGHT!?" he yelled making both boys block their ears in pain at Eddy's loud voice.

At that point, Trixie walked up to the door. "I can hear you! No need to shout."

"Course there was, my normal voice wasn't going to get past your two bodyguards… now Trixie, you said you'd go on a date with me if I brought you something you really liked. Are you gonna keep your end of the deal?"

"Assuming you have kept yours of course."

Eddy dug into his back pocket. "Heck yeah." Eddy took out the diamond necklace and shown it to Trixie who immediately gasped in shock.

"T-That's my…"

"I found it in the restaurant carriage under one of the tables. I figured you wanted it back."

Trixie took the necklace looking gleeful. "Oh, thank you so much! I lost it the other day and I was so worried! I thought someone might have stolen it!"

"If someone did then they accidentally dropped it." Said Eddy with a small smirk.

"How do we know you didn't just steal it yourself?" asked the blonde boy.

"Because I had no idea it even existed until I found it."

"Yeah right! And how did you know it belonged to Trixie in the first place?" asked the black-haired boy.

"It's got her name on it." The two boys looked confused at first, but then they leaned over to see Trixie's necklace seeing that it did indeed have her name engraved onto the diamond. "Funny how you two never knew that was there, yet aren't you her friends?" the two boys growled at the smug Eddy. "Well, a deal's a deal, right?"

Trixie looked back at Eddy, then to her necklace and sighed. She placed the necklace into her bag and stepped out. "Yeah, so what do you wanna do? Movies? Dancing?"

"Well this train will be leaving soon so I doubt you'd wanna do anything like that. I was actually thinking of just dinner and talking. My treat."

"I hardly expected much from you I guess, dinner it is."

With that, Eddy and Trixie made their way to the next carriage with the two boys following, until Eddy turned and noticed them. "I'm pretty certain I asked Trixie out on a date."

"Like we'd let Trixie date a low-class unpopular dork like you on her own." Said the blonde boy.

"So, we'll be making sure you don't do anything funny." Said the black-haired boy.

Eddy rolled his eyes. "Do these two always follow you around?"

"We mostly walk together." Said Trixie.

"Well I think they're just going to interfere with our date. Surely you wouldn't want them to do that."

"They don't like the idea of me dating someone as unpopular as you." Trixie turned to the boys after sighing. "Tad, Chad… he did return my diamond necklace, I do owe him a lot for that. How about letting us have our privacy?"

The boys looked shocked. "W-What?!"

"Look, I'm not letting my friends interfere either." Said Eddy. "I'm just asking for a simple date, I'm not gonna touch her or anything."

"Just this once you two. I'll be alright." Said Trixie.

The boys felt shocked, but then they growled their way back to their room. Eddy and Trixie continued to walk towards the restaurant carriage. "If anything, it sounds like they're more jealous than worried for you." Said Eddy.

"They do seem a bit like stalkers at times. Well what can I say; the rich popular students should stick together."

"Are any of them even your friends?"

"O-Of course, best friends." Eddy could tell Trixie wasn't being honest, but he wasn't ready to blow his one and only chance to date her.

* * *

Mahogany Station looked even worse on the inside; the wooden beams were on the verge of collapsing, cracked in several areas. The walls have crumbled in a few areas and the floor was littered with broken bits of wood and metal, if that wasn't enough, there were giant piles of snow blocking large sections of the station.

Sabrina held a large spade with a metal head she found just outside the station. She slowly placed it in front of Bowla. "Ok, just a small flame."

Bowla gently began to breathe fire on a small scale onto the head of the spade until it was red hot. Then Sabrina shoved the spade into a huge pile of snow blocking the door and the snow began to melt fast, within a few seconds the snow had turned into a huge puddle of water. "There, using this spade and only a small flame, we can dispose of the snow without setting the place alight."

"Gotta hand it to you Sabrina. You're good at these ideas… though it would be more fun to blast the place down until the lever is all that's left."

"There are numerous reasons as to why we cannot do that. But rather than take hours of our time, let's just keep going."

"Hey, I reckon if Bowla wants to burn the place down, let her. No one works here, and it will be easier to find the lever." Said Mike simply trying to get into Bowla's good books.

"See, Mike's good with ideas too." Said Jack fixing his glasses.

"You are both idiots." Said Sabrina looking annoyed. "Now look, I personally do not wish to hear one more divergence with any of you, can we just please finish our assignment without destroying the station?"

"Fine, but you're making me hold back a lot of my strength." Said Mike. "You'll be begging for me to use it sooner or later."

"Strength? Please… the only thing you and Jack are good for are meat-shields." Said Bowla.

Sabrina sighed as she walked up to the door they freed from the snow. But when she opened it, another huge pile of snow fell from the door blocking their way. She then faces Bowla with the spade, "You know what to do."

Bowla breathes a small flame onto the spade until it was red hot again, then Sabrina shoved the spade into the snow making it melt, Sabrina was forced to walk with the spade making it melt more however. Once it was cleared, the four arrived at a long broken-down hallway.

Sabrina turned to Mike and Jack. "Meat-shields… frontline."

"I never signed up to be a meat-shield!" exclaimed Mike.

"Same here." Said Jack.

"Either you two be meat-shields or you'll be cooked meat-shields!" said Bowla pointing to the front. Mike and Jack immediately ran to the front and the four began to walk along the hallway.

After a minute of walking through this, they found another door which Mike opened for them. As they entered it, they found themselves in a large open room with so many rotting books on worn out, cracked shelves. The four looked around for a bit.

"Where exactly are we?" asked Mike.

"There's a high probability that this is the records room." Said Sabrina looking at the shelves. "This must be where they record each and every train that arrived here, as well as individuals, damages, employees... everything." She turned to look around more. "Every single book must have all their procedures which become apparent in this station… if we were to recite them all, I believe we could learn how this station used to work and what transpired here before it was shut-down… mind you." Sabrina took one of the books only to have it crumble apart in her hands. "The tribulations of time were disagreeable to this place."

"Meh, readings boring anyway." Said Mike.

"Mike, you can't read… or write for that matter." Said Bowla in a mocking tone.

"I don't need to learn." Mike points to Jack with his thumb. "I have Jack for that."

"Of course, loyal for life I am." Said Jack.

Bowla looked up to see a worn-out flight of stairs. "Reckon the lever's up there?"

Sabrina looked at the stairs and then looked around. "I do not see any other place to go, so it is possible. But watch your step, undoubtedly they are icy… and deteriorated."

The four began to climb the stairs slowly and carefully. Trying their best to keep their footing, as they did, Bowla began to sigh as she looked around. "Y'Know… it doesn't feel right without Teo… next time my little wimp's coming with me."

The four made it to the top and opened the one and only door on the upper floor. They were all introduced with a burst of cold wind revealing the door was leading outside, they all stepped back blocking their eyes. "Man, can't see a thing!" said Mike.

Bowla immediately stepped forward and took a deep breath, then she blasted out a huge stream of fire from her mouth which not only pushed the wind back, but lit up the way for a moment, there Sabrina saw that this used to be just another room, but the walls and roof were gone, likely destroyed in the wind, but up ahead was another room. So, the four immediately ran for it as Bowla stopped breathing fire.

They made it to the other room and slammed the door shut to keep the wind out. Bowla sighed as she kept her hands firmly on the door. "Phew… that was rough."

Sabrina nodded. "The weather conditions must be getting harsher, we must locate this lever and vacate before there is an opportunity for this structure to breakdown."

Bowla turned around to see that they were now in some sort of small office with a large crippled desk, an old phone, a chair that has been chewed apart by rodents and there was a large pile of snow near the wall. Sabrina took the spade and shown it to Bowla for her to breathe fire on, once she did, Sabrina shoved the spade into the snow making it melt, until-

CRAACK!

The surprised Sabrina took the spade out of the half-melted snow to reveal the head was completely cracked in the middle. "Woah... how did that happen?" asked Bowla.

"It is an old spade; it obviously broke from the weight of the snow." Said Jack looking smug.

"Wrong, the snow turned incredibly soft every time I put the spade into it. It broke because of the dramatic temperature changes it went through. Going red hot to icy cold in mere seconds can break anything apart… I anticipated this possibility and I had hoped it would not break before we locate the lever."

Jack crossed his arms feeling furious at Sabrina. They all turned to see that while the snow was only half melted, it melted enough to reveal a lever on the upper half. "JACKPOT!" said Mike as he marched up to it.

But just before he could pull it, a massive hoard of tiny spiders ran down from the ceiling crawling along the walls scaring the kids. "SPIDERS!" Sabrina screamed. The spiders soon ran onto the floor and scuttled under the floorboards disappearing from sight. Sabrina shuddered with a good chunk of her hair sticking up from the chills she got. "Bleck! Ick! Gak! I… HATE… SPIDERS!"

"Heh. Scardey Sabrina! Scared of a few hundred spiders." Mike looked around for a bit, and then he reached for the lever again and pulled it down. Then the gang heard a loud rumble, they all looked out the window seeing the drawbridge was lowering. The man – who covered himself more to protect himself from the weather getting stronger - looked at the bridge, and then he looked towards the window the kids were at and waved at them.

"Ok, let's blow this frozen popsicle stand!" Said Bowla as she was about to make her way to the door.

"Hey look." Mike pointed to a large safe that was rusted and damaged in multiple places, but the door to it was slightly ajar.

Jack walked up to it and opened it up, the others looked and all they saw was one book, but all the pages had been laminated, preserving them in perfect condition.

Sabrina reached for the book and opened up the first page to read it. Each second, she had a more intrigued expression.

"Well, what's it say?" asked Bowla.

"It would appear to be a journal." Sabrina responded. "The proprietor of the station has had some interesting history concerning artefacts and… Santa Claus."

"Wait? The boss of this place was buddies with Santa?" Mike asked.

"It would seem so." Sabrina closed the book and held onto it. "Let us return to the train before the weather's conditions worsen."

* * *

Back at the train, we find Teo still sleeping peacefully as he cuddled his rabbit. That was until he heard the door open making him slowly open his eyes. He turned to see Bowla, Mike, Jack and Sabrina have returned; he immediately perked up when he saw Bowla. "B-Bowla, you're back."

"Have you just been sleeping this whole time?" asked Bowla.

"Um… I do like my naps."

"Well whatever, while you were just napping. Brave heroes like me were facing danger head on and saving lives!" gloated Mike as he stared down at Teo.

"By danger, he means piles of snow and some spiders… and by saving lives, he means pulling a small lever." Said Bowla as she smiled at Teo.

"Hey! I'm the hero anyway, I pulled the lever and lowered the drawbridge." Said Mike looking to Bowla. "Surely that makes me way better than Teo who never even bothered to go."

"No… it doesn't, anyone could've pulled that lever… and I asked Teo to stay here, he deserves a break after taking on that freaky alien."

"Nevertheless, the train will be redeploying soon. We should pull through to Shiver Town tomorrow at one according to the conductor." Sabrina takes out the pocket watch she stole from Stan and looked at it, revealing to be three o clock. "I will be setting the alarm for eight again… with any luck it does not get rigged again."

"And with that freaky alien gone, the rest of this ride will be smooth sailing." Said Jack.

"Um…" Teo felt the need to speak. "P-Probably not."

Everyone looked over to Teo. "Why?" asked Jack.

"Well um… I'm certain the um, bad guys are going to try and stop this train again… I mean… it was likely that they were the ones who pulled the lever raising the drawbridge to begin with."

Sabrina rubs her chin. "Teo makes a compelling argument… that station was abandoned in the 1930's, and this train has been travelling on these tracks for years, so somebody must have pulled it recently… in fact, it is possible that there is an additional perpetrator on this train."

"Wait! So, there might be another guy who's in cahoots with that alien and this 'Doofen-whatchamacallit' guy?" asked Mike.

"Perhaps… someone must have pulled that lever when the train stopped. Meaning that whoever left the train at some point, must have been the one who pulled the lever."

"But… we were the only ones who left the train didn't we?" asked Teo.

"ALL ABOARD!" shouted the man who entered the train. At that point, the train slowly started moving once again.

Sabrina noticed the man and walked up to him. "Excuse me, who departed the train throughout the time it was motionless?"

The man rubbed his chin. "Hmm… well there was me and you kids… I believe Sharpfin, Mandy, Yen and the three Eds were the only ones to leave… oh and Chip Skylark, but he hasn't come back yet… guess he was departing at Mahogany Town."

Sabrina could've told him the truth, but there was no point. "Ok, thank you." She walked back into Room Five and closed the door. "Ok, that man could be the primary suspect; he was the only one who left the train besides the others who got rid of Zim. It's likely he pulled the lever while we were distracted with Zim and our lunch."

"Speaking of lunch? Where's Samantha?" asked Bowla.

The door suddenly opened revealing a green-faced Samantha looking terribly ill. "Urgh… blarg…"

"Uh... y-you ok?" asked Jack.

"Urp… a twenty-seven-course meal…" muttered Samantha.

"TWENTY-SEVEN?!" Exclaimed Sabrina, she turned to Teo. "Teo did you not keep an eye on her?!"

"I thought she was in here the whole time!" said Teo looking worried.

Suddenly Samantha's cheeks inflated as she tried to desperately keep her mouth close. Everyone immediately grew terrified. "INCOMING!" Screamed Mike as he ran to a corner.

BAAAAAARRRRRRFFF!

* * *

Much later, turning from afternoon to night, the gang had moved themselves and their belongings to Room Four while the staff cleaned up Room Five. Everyone recovered physically, mentally and emotionally. All except for Samantha who lied on the right-side couch groaning in misery… "I'll never eat again…" she leaned up. "Speaking of which, I wonder when dinner is."

Teo wasn't paying any attention to her; he was looking around his Baby Bunny for any spots he might have missed when he was cleaning her. Jack was sitting on the bottom left bunk bed reading a book, Bowla was playing on her 3DS and Sabrina had been reading the book she took from Mahogany Station on the opposite couch. Mike not long came into the room after having a quick shower. "Man… I swear I still have carrot-sticks in my ears." He grumbled as he was digging into his right ear.

Sabrina noticed Mike coming in. "Ok, that is everyone right?"

"Yep." Said Mike as he climbed up onto the top left bunk. "Hey what the?!" suddenly the Persian cat jumped off the bed and landed on the couch next to Teo.

"Oh, hello there. Thanks for helping me earlier." Said Teo as he began stroking the cat who immediately cuddled up to Teo.

"I forgot about that cat." Said Mike as he looked down from his bed.

"Aww, how cute." Said Bowla.

"I did not know this train allowed animals." Said Sabrina.

"Well if they let Teo in of all people then they're gonna let a cat in." chuckled Mike.

Teo looked up to Bowla. "So, what are we gonna do about this second culprit?"

"No idea." Said Sabrina. "Even if we prove he was the one who pulled the lever, what difference would it make… unless he planned to destroy the train too which I doubt, since the next stop is Shiver Town itself. He'd be forced to destroy the train with him in it so-"

Suddenly the cat started meowing at Teo. "What's that girl?" he asked. The cat continued meowing; luckily Teo understood every word she said. "I see…" he turned to Sabrina. "Celina here said that man isn't the culprit… the lever was pulled before the train arrived."

"You seriously gonna believe what some mangy cat has to say?" asked Mike.

"Well yeah… animals don't lie." Said Teo. "Plus, this is Santa's cat."

"Santa's?!" exclaimed Bowla.

"So, Santa owns a cat… and she's helping us?" asked Jack.

Teo nodded. "Celina said she was put here by Santa's elves to help us out. They knew the bad guys wouldn't let us get to Shiver Town easily, and Celina claims to have a fraction of Santa's magic to help her find the truth in mysteries."

"Well it explains how you knew it was Chip Skylark that was threatening to blow up the train earlier." Said Bowla.

"W-Well Celina guided me to the right area… and Z-Zim kinda messed up his disguise by talking about the explosives." Teo turned to Celina. "So… is there anyone on this train we should be concerned with?" Celina meowed a few times. "She said no, only Zim was part of the group, everyone else is fine."

"Well in that case! Allow me to be the first to kick back and finally relax!" said Mike as he slumped down onto his bed.

"Well don't get too comfortable, it won't be long before dinner starts." Said Jack.

Mike leans over the side to look down to Jack. "Is it? Well now that you mention it, I am kinda hungry."

Samantha was about to get up, but she fell back onto her couch still feeling sick. "Blurgh… bring me back something please."

"You have had more than the sufficient amount." Said Sabrina. "You might have to miss breakfast tomorrow."

As the gang made their way to the door, Teo turned to face Celina and Samantha who stayed behind. "Um… we'll bring a little something if we can." Celina meowed cheerfully while Samantha simply waved.

"Anyway, I'll be setting the alarm for eight tomorrow." Said Sabrina.

The gang went to the restaurant carriage where they were having a very delicious meal again; as the kids were eating, Sabrina placed the book onto the table and opened the pages. "I have been reading this journal the proprietor of the station had kept in a safe. And I had discovered some very interesting subjects."

"What?" asked Mike.

"According to the book, the proprietor, whom is referred to as Abraham Wallace, has had family ties to Santa Claus since the 1700s. The family has had great respect for the man and has been known to travel with him during expeditions. Apparently, Santa Claus would travel the world when Christmas had passed. The last member of the family, Abraham, conducted a very important expedition, searching for these strange objects called Naughty Crystals."

"N-Naughty Crystals?" Teo asked.

"From the research, it would appear that Naughty Crystals - dubbed by Santa Claus – are a category of minerals infected with negative energy, when exposed to humans, the energy would corrupt their hearts, turning them evil. However, it takes a tremendous amount of time for it to corrupt and a human can be purified, simply by remaining out of contact, though it seems to have a greater effect on children. Abraham's journal specified that he alongside his parents, had travelled with Santa, to terminate the Naughty Crystals."

"Wow, to be able to travel with Santa. That must be something." Said Bowla.

"There is more information. When Abraham had inherited the Mahogany Station, he severed his ties with Santa to fulfil his business. It was there that he discovered a small mine in the east with a giant pile of Naughty Crystals within the deepest level, the last of its kind according to the book. But instead of destroying them, he discovered the monetary value to them. From what I can gather, Abraham got corrupted by the Naughty Crystals if he intended to sell them for a profit as opposed to simply destroying them."

"So, he got a good get rich quick scheme huh? I sure would like one of those." Mike mumbled.

"That is accurate, however he did not exchange them instantaneously, he instead buried the Naughty Crystals deep into a series of treasure boxes scattered across the mountains, to protect them and to exchange them for wealth should he succumb to financial complications. However… he never did exchange them when that time had arrived. And his journal ended abruptly, it is possible some sort of sudden event occurred, but it is implied he chose to not exchange the Naughty Crystals."

"So, they're still out there?" asked Jack.

"It would seem so. However… the last page of this journal states that the Naughty Crystals should be destroyed, and that a map revealing the location of all one hundred and twenty treasure boxes. But…" Sabrina turned the page to see that the map was not there. "The map is absent, it is my logical presumption that someone came to this station before us, and took the map. And if I had to invoke a deduction, I would presume that it was the same individual who pulled the lever in the station."

"The Evil Buddies…" Mumbled Teo.

"Precisely." Sabrina replied as she closed the book. "If this estimation is correct, then this means that the last of the Naughty Crystals are being used in some manner to destroy Christmas."

"So that just means we need to do more smashing!" exclaimed Bowla looking excited.

"Indeed. But a more immediate matter is upon us." Said Sabrina.

"What?"

"Dinner of course."

After dinner, they brought back a small piece of chicken for Celina and a cookie for Samantha, but had to leave it until she was feeling better. Then the gang tucked themselves into their beds and couches after Sabrina set the alarm on her clock. With that the gang fell asleep more peacefully than before, knowing they had no more troubles to deal with.

… or so they thought…


	5. The Ice King Cometh

**Chapter 5: The Ice King Cometh**

* * *

The ringing sound of the clock screamed across the room, Teo slowly opened his eyes to see the clock shaking as it rung. Instead of turning it off however, he sat and started stretching, waiting for the clock to wake everyone else. He looked around to see the other kids starting to get up slowly. "Urgh… turn that thing off!" shouted Mike.

Teo looked to see everyone was slowly getting up, so he reached for the clock and looked around on it to see how to turn it off. Sabrina walked up to him and gently took the clock off of him. She pressed a button on the back making the clock stop.

Samantha slowly sat up from the couch; she looked perfectly fine once again. "Morning guys… so what's for breakfast?"

Sabrina walked up to her and placed her hand on her forehead for two seconds. "Ok, you can have something, but you're restricted to only two meals."

"What?! Why?!"

"We don't want you throwing up for a second time. Either only have two meals or none!"

Mike and Jack slowly got out of their beds as Bowla got out of hers. "Well I know one thing. We have nothing to worry about." Said Bowla. "No one on this train is an enemy, and it's not like they can just fly over and attack the train."

"It would appear improbable." Said Sabrina.

Suddenly the cat Celina ran in, jumped up onto the couch Teo sat on and bit onto his shirt sleeve and started pulling. "What's wrong Celina?"

The kids left Room Four answering to Celina, she then ran to the direction of the next carriage with Rooms One and Two. Teo immediately followed her whereas the others went towards the restaurant carriage "We'll save a seat for you." Said Bowla.

Teo entered the next carriage where he saw Celina looking down onto the floor seeing a small spider. Teo rubbed the back of his head feeling confused. "Um… you don't like spiders?" Teo gently kneeled down and cupped his hands together catching the spider, despite Teo being typically a shy scared little kid; he had no fear of spiders whatsoever. He then placed his hands on the windowsill and opened them letting the spider go on there.

Teo noticed Celina running to the next door. "W-Wait…" he started running after her. "You know I cannot understand what you mean if you don't talk!"

Back in the restaurant carriage, we find the others sitting at a table reading the menus while they waited for Mandy to arrive and take their orders. While Sabrina read hers, she noticed a spider crawling down from the top of her menu, she let out a quick shriek before throwing her menu behind her. The others noticed her fear induced face. "You really don't like spiders, do you?" asked Jack.

"Do any of you?" asked Sabrina looking annoyed. She turned to look at the menu she threw, the spider quickly ran from it and towards the kitchen, as Sabrina looked to where the spider was going, and she noticed that the entire kitchen was empty. "Where is Luigi?"

That one question made the others realise something. "Never mind Luigi… where's everybody?" asked Samantha. The kids looked around to see the entire carriage was empty, no passengers, no chef or waitress, nothing.

"Must be sleeping in." said Mike as he looked back at his menu. But he looked away as the kids heard a loud rumble… it WASN'T the train.

Teo and Celina entered the engine room, there they saw the train driver who turned to them, and then he pointed to a sign saying 'Don't talk to the driver. And don't touch the machinery.' Celina ran closer to the driver with Teo slowly following her feeling nervous. Unable to read what the sign said.

"Hm?" said the driver getting Teo and Celina's attention. They noticed a small spider on the windscreen. "That's odd… how'd a spider get on there?"

Celina puffed up and started hissing at the spider making Teo and the driver looked at her confused. "What's wrong?"

Suddenly there was a loud rumble, and to their shock, the entire windscreen became mobbed with millions of tiny spiders blocking their view entirely. The driver screamed as he immediately put the windshield wipers on to try and brush the spiders off, but more spiders kept taking their place. "BAD! BAD! BAD! THIS IS REALLY FLIPPING BAD!"

' _Looks like the enemy isn't done with us yet!_ ' thought Teo feeling nervous.

The driver turned to him. "Kid, quick! Go check on the passengers!"

"R-Right!" Teo and Celina ran out of the engine room and into the next carriage, he grew both shocked and terrified to see every window was blocked by spiders and could feel the entire train getting rocked by them.

Teo opened the door to Room Two. "Trixie?!" he called, but there was literally no one in that room. So, he and Celina ran to the next carriage with Rooms Three, Four and Five. He immediately opened up the door to Room Three where the Heavy Weapons Guy was, but he was nowhere to be found either. "W-Where is everyone?!" The train rocked again, this time Teo saw some of the spiders squeezing their way through the window gaps. So, he and Celina ran from this room and headed towards the restaurant carriage.

Teo entered the restaurant carriage only to find the other kids fighting the small spiders by either stomping on them or smacking them with objects they could find on the tables. "I… HATE… SPIDERS!" Sabrina screamed.

Celina suddenly jumped in between the kids and a sudden blast of light shot from her fur which began to swish and sway, the spiders immediately ran back and went through the cracks in the walls and windows. "H-How did you do that?!" exclaimed Mike as the light died down.

"Celina did say she has a fraction of Santa's magic in her." Said Teo. Celina turned and meowed to him. "What? The roof?!" Teo turned to the others. "Celina said one of the Evil Buddies is on the roof with some hostages!"

"What?!" asked Bowla. "Well how do we get onto the roof?!"

Celina meowed a few times again. "There's a way onto the roof at the back." Said Teo.

The kids and Celina all ran towards the next carriage with Rooms Six, Seven and Eight. They felt more rocking from the train. Instead of looking into the rooms for the other passengers, they ran to the end where they saw the door but no conductor. Sabrina tried desperately to open the door, but it couldn't.

"Move it!" shouted Mike as he and Samantha immediately pushed past the kids and at the same time, they both slammed themselves into the door forcing it open breaking the locks as well as parts of the door.

To their shock, they saw a huge mountain of spiders covering half of the storage carriage. Bowla immediately stepped forward and took a deep breath; she then unleashed a massive yet controlled flame across the spiders scorching them to dust.

"WOAH!"

"AH HOT!"

As the spiders charged away, they saw Yen and Mandy being thrown out from the spiders as the rest of them ran out of the carriage and through another door leading outside. Teo ran up to Yen and Mandy to see they were wearing different clothing; Mandy wore a strange black see-through outfit which exposed parts of her body while Yen simply had his shirt off.

"Yen, Mandy! Are you two ok I saw- what are you wearing?" asked Teo looking at Mandy feeling both confused and strangely mesmerized.

"None of your business!" exclaimed Mandy as she tried to cover herself with her arms while blushing.

"We're not sure why those spiders ambushed us, but they've got the others on the roof." Said Yen.

Sabrina looked towards the door swinging open; she grew nervous seeing the freezing winds shoot by. "It's bitter enough to freeze us, we'll require our winter clothing, but… that gale will likely shove us off the train!"

Celina jumped forward and released another bright light making her fur swish and sway. The kids felt this light around them, it felt very warming actually. She then meowed at Teo. "Celina said this light will shield us from the wind and cold."

"Ok. C'mon let's move!" said Bowla. The kids all ran towards the door leaving Yen and Mandy behind.

Teo was the first to run out, but he came to a screeching stop seeing he only had so little room to walk around, there was a tiny metal platform with a metal fence, Teo grew surprised to see the scenery zooming past them, and the train itself was riding across a massive stone bridge several hundred feet high off the ground. But what surprised him the most was the giant golden bubble made of light which surrounded the entire train blocking the snow and winds. He knew this was Celina's doing, after all he couldn't feel the cold or the winds.

Teo looked behind him to see a ladder going up to the roof, so he immediately started climbing up, but grew horrified to see millions upon millions of spiders all crawling along the roof and sides, as Teo got to the top, he noticed the spiders starting to crawl around his legs and feel their strength trying to push him down. But Teo immediately crouched down and spun around smacking his tail around the spiders sending them flying, he then started to jump around smashing the spiders.

"TEO MOVE!" shouted Sabrina, Teo looked behind him and jumped out of the way, letting Bowla breath fire across the roof burning the spiders to dust.

"Leave it to me!" said the smug looking Bowla. "I've been itching to go full force with my fire!" Bowla took another deep breath and shot out another massive stream of fire across the top of the train scorching more spiders.

"ATTACK!" Shouted Mike. The kids charged forward stepping on any spider that got close to them, whereas Bowla stood in front of them at all times using her fire breath. The kids slowly got off the top of the storage carriage and making their way closer to the front of the train.

Within a minute of constant attacking, they made it on top of the restaurant carriage roof. But suddenly, every spider let out a massive deafening screeching sound making all six cover their ears. "WHAT ARE THEY DOING?!" Shouted Jack.

Jack got his answer when they all saw the spiders retreating to the front of the train, starting to bunch up into a huge ball of spiders at the very front. Sabrina's eyes shrunk feeling horrified. "Oh… no…"

Once every single spider was in the giant ball, it suddenly began to create six legs, a giant scorpion tail and a long snake-like neck with a giant spider head. All the spiders formed together to create a giant monstrous spider. It then shot out six long tendrils from its back, and inside those tendrils were the remaining passengers panicking as they tried to get free.

"T-The other passengers!" said Teo.

"YAAAAAAH"

"SAAAAVEEEE UUUSSS!"

The kids stepped back feeling nervous. "Not a bad monster if I say so myself!" said an ominous voice, the kids looked around confused.

"W-Who said that?!" asked Mike.

"I DID!" The kids looked up to see an old fat man fly down to them using his long beard as wings. It was the Ice King. "What's up kiddos? So yeah, as you might have guessed, these are the same spiders you met at that station yesterday, I put them there to pull that lever and attack the train!"

"Who are you, you fat geezer?!" asked Bowla.

"I'm the Ice King! And I'm here to make sure you don't save Santa or Christmas!" he then pointed to his giant spider monster. "And my little Geoffrey here is gonna make sure of it!"

"Geoffrey? You seriously named that freak Geoffrey?!" asked Mike.

"Hey! He's no freak! I find him adorable as a matter of fact!" Ice King began to stroke the spider's head. "Aren't you my adorable little Geoffrey Weoffrey? Yes, you are! Yes, you are!"

"I'm gonna be sicky wicky if that freaky weaky keeps baby talking his spidey widey." Said the disgusted looking Bowla.

The Ice King chuckled and floated back. "Now then my Geoffrey! Smashy washy these bratty watties!"

The spider raised its head and slammed it down towards the kids who jumped back. Bowla shot a stream of fire at the spider's head causing it to bounce off in several areas, but it still did some damage. The spider then shot one of its tendrils down trying to strike Bowla, but she dodged to the side and Teo began running up the tendril towards the Ice King who shot a beam of ice towards him, but Teo jumped in time making the ice hit the tendril freezing it in a section of it. Which Teo landed and slammed his super strong tail onto it smashing it to pieces making the tendril fall off onto the train making it explode into hundreds of spiders flying everywhere.

In the blast, Eddy, Inspector Gadget and Luigi were freed from the tendril and landed on top of the train. Teo jumped off the giant spider with his claws out readying to strike Ice King, but the giant spider's tail suddenly grabbed him and threw him far to the right and off the train.

"TEEOO!" Screamed Bowla.

"GO-GO GADGET ARM!" Gadget extended his arm forward and caught Teo, but instead of bringing him back, he threw Teo towards the Ice King.

Just before the tail could grab him again, Bowla shot a huge stream of fire from her mouth blasting the tail to smithereens letting Teo latch onto Ice King's face and started clawing and biting him. "GET OFF! GET OFF! GET OFF! GEOFFREY! HELP ME!"

The spider turned its head and shot two more of its tendrils towards Teo. But Luigi came out of from the sky and slammed his feet firmly on one of the tendrils shooting it down and smacking the top of the train and letting Tad and Chad free but not Stan. Before the tendril lifted up again, Tad and Chad grabbed onto Stan's arms and tried to pull him out, but they got lifted up too.

The second tendril aimed for Teo, but he saw this and flipped up onto Ice King's head making the tendril hit him in the chest instead sending him flying back, but Ice King flew forward again, grabbed Teo and held him in front of him to blast him with an ice attack at point-blank range. But before he could, Sabrina's extendable boxing glove shot out of her sleeve smacking Ice King releasing his grip on Teo making him drop, Teo saw he was about to land on the spider's back, so he quickly spiralled his tail and shot it down onto the spider's back causing it to hit the top of the train hard and shook its tendrils unintentionally. The force of this freed Stan, Tad and Chad making them fall off the side of the train, that was until Gadget shot both of his arms towards them and they caught them.

Gadget quickly places them on the far end of the train out of harm's way as Sabrina retracted her boxing glove to shoot again at the Ice King, but he moves to the side dodging the boxing glove and shoots another ice blast towards her. "Go-Go Riot Shields!" Gadget jumps in front of Sabrina and turns both of his arms into two large riot shields and blocks the ice blast. "Go-Go Mini Missiles!" he turns his right arm back to normal and his hand went into his sleeve and was replaced with seven tiny missiles which all fired at once.

Ice King shot out several ice beams at the missiles, four of them got frozen, one hit the Ice King and the other two struck the back of the spider causing all of its tendrils to blast off and the remaining passengers fell off the sides of the train.

"TRIXIE!" Yelled Eddy seeing her fall off the left side, literally without thinking, he ran towards the edge and actually jumped off the train to try and catch her.

"Go-Go Gadget Arm!" Gadget shot both of his arms out over both sides of the train trying to catch everyone, but only a few were not close enough to grab his arms or get caught by Gadget's arms. Heavy, Ed, Veronica, Trixie and Eddy all continued to fall.

Eddy quickly grabbed Trixie's arm. "I got you!" he then moved Trixie to just above him and kept his arms around her.

Suddenly the two landed on the barrier and bounced off it slightly breaking their fall. The same applied for the others. "Huh? It's solid?" asked the Heavy.

Gadget was looking down the entire time and sighed with relief, he looked at his two arms holding the remaining passengers, and ahead to see the kids fighting the spider and Ice King. "It's safer for you to be down there and away from the battle!" Gadget shook both his arms making everyone lose their grips and fall to the bottom of the barrier where they bounced off it and landed softly. "Go-Go Laser!" Gadget's two index fingers opened and started firing small blue lasers at the spider's head.

At the bottom of the barrier, they all noticed the driver opening both windows on the front and threw out large rope ladders on each one. "Quick! Climb up! We don't know how long this shield will last!" the passengers immediately ran towards the rope ladders and began climbing up them.

Mike got on the head of the spider and started punching it repeatedly while Samantha kept her arms around the tail and held it back. But the spider shot more tendrils out which picked up the two, but before any harm could come to them, Bowla shot a stream of fire at the tendrils cutting them and making Mike and Samantha fall towards the spider. The two then got their elbows ready and slammed onto the spider's back causing it to hit the train hard. Teo jumped onto its head and leapt up towards the Ice King, but he shot an ice blast directly at Teo encasing his body in a block of ice and sending him flying back, but the ice actually started to melt rapidly due to the heat inside the barrier and Teo immediately recovered, jumped off of the spider's body again and leapt at the Ice King faster and latched his claws onto his face.

"WILL YOU GET OFF!" Shouted Ice King as he tried to pull him off, after a few seconds he did but Teo shot forward and kicked the crown off Ice King's head and it fell to the bottom of the barrier. "NO! MY CROWN! MY SOURCE OF POWER!"

"Is it?" asked Teo. "GOOD TO KNOW!" Teo cupped his hands together and slammed them onto Ice King's head making him fall down a bit, then Teo leapt up to just above him, curled his tail up and shot it down onto the Ice King's face making him fall to the bottom like a screaming rocket. But just as he was about to hit the ground, the barrier suddenly opened for both him and his crown and they fell through the barrier and into the frozen forest below. Teo began to fall himself, that was until Gadget shot his arm forward and grabbed Teo and pulled him back next to him.

The spider slammed its head onto the train making everyone fly back. The spider then raised its head again for another attack.

"HII-YAAH!" Shouted Mandy as she flew down at the spider dive-kicking it in the face. The force of it actually tipped the spider back onto its end legs.

"HAWK-WAVE!" Shouted Yen as he kicked his leg up and shot a large red energy wave from it shooting past the others and striking the spider's underbelly sending it flying from the train with the energy wave still pushing it.

While in the air, the wave slowly blasted through the spider in a powerful shockwave. The spider let out a massive screech as white lights began to emit from it and exploded into a flurry of dead spiders fall to the bottom of the barrier until it opened up letting them fall to the forest.

"Wow! We did it!" exclaimed Jack.

The others looked over to Mandy and Yen. "Didn't expect us to be ace fighters, did you?" asked Yen.

"Ace fighters in cute outfits." Said Gadget saluting. "None the less you were a big help even if it was at the last minute."

"How come you took so long anyway? Weren't you just behind us?" asked Bowla.

"Hey! You saw what I was wearing!" said Mandy looking both annoyed and a bit embarrassed. "If you thought for a second I was going out there in THAT, you have another thing coming!"

The gang looked around to see the barrier faded for a second before coming back. "This barrier will not last long!" said Sabrina. "It would be wise to return inside before we get blitzed by a two-hundred mile an hour artic wind!"

* * *

Everyone was now in the restaurant carriage. "My goodness, for three days you kids have done nothing but help us." Exclaimed Edd. "First with the missing pans, the guy threatening to blow up the train, lowering the drawbridge so we can continue and now fighting that giant monstrosity and that Ice King guy."

"I know. I am amazing." Said the smug looking Mike.

Bowla suddenly pushes Mike. "But the real heroes are Teo, Sabrina and I."

"We owe you huge debt." Said the Heavy. "You're on mission to save Santa Claus, right? Well allow me to help you."

Eddy placed his right arm around Trixie. "You helped me, and Trixie hook up, we grew to like each other more thanks to you. You can count me and my boys in."

"Not only did you save by belongings but also my life." Said Sharpfin. "I will repay the debt however I can."

"Trying to destroy a train with several civilians inside is bad enough, but kidnapping Santa Claus and planning to replace Christmas with some other lousy made-up holiday is just despicable. As part of the police force, I – Inspector Gadget, will accompany you on this quest."

"You can count me in too." Said Luigi.

"We owe you a lot, I'm in." said Yen, he then turned to Mandy. "You in?"

"Ah what the heck? I've been itching to fight someone anyway."

"Personally, I can't fight, nor do I wanna get involved in this… but I can help you anyway." Mr Stan pointed to his shop. "I have a few items that could be of use to you. Come by later when you're ready."

The only ones' left were Trixie, Tad and Chad, plus Veronica and the Bouncer. Everyone looked over to them. "There really isn't anything we can do actually, we're not fighters and we don't have anything to offer." Said Trixie.

"Yeah, so don't get us involved." Said Tad.

"We're grateful and all, but we can't repay you." Said Chad. "Our Bouncer's tough, but we need him more."

"We're really sorry." Said Veronica.

"Um… I-It really doesn't matter." Said Teo.

Trixie rubbed her head, but then she got an idea. "I know… tell you what, by the time we get to Shiver Town, it'll already be dark, meaning you'll need a place to sleep for the night… and you may wanna do some shopping while in town. So how about we pay for everything you need?"

Tad, Chad and Veronica looked at Trixie feeling shocked. "Are you serious?" asked Tad.

"Wasting our money on these kids?" asked Chad. "We need our money for more important things."

Trixie turned and glared at the two. "We owe them you two. And I figured using our money to help the kids who are trying to save Christmas would be the most important. If you two aren't going to help, then you can just take your bags over to the Room One and stay there!"

"O-Ok! Ok! We'll help!" said Tad.

Trixie turned to Veronica. "You'll help, too right?"

"Of course, they did save our lives twice after all."

Stan walked up to Sabrina. "Tell you what, in addition to this… I can give you a little something, it's not much… but my prized pocket watch is very durable and has never missed a tick."

Sabrina's eyes widened feeling quite nervous. She already had his watch in her sleeve. "O-Oh uh… I… I appreciate it."

Stan began digging into his pockets. "Now where did I put it?" he continued to dig around. "C'mon I know I have it." Sabrina began to feel a little awkward until she saw Stan facing the other way to the crowd.

At that point, Sabrina immediately slipped the pocket watch into his back pocket when he wasn't looking. "Did you try your back pockets?"

Stan turned to face her again and dug into his back pockets, there he took out the watch. "Ah there is it… I was certain I placed them in my side pockets." He then handed it to Sabrina. "There you go, take good care of it."

"Do not worry, I will." She then looked at it seeing the time was nine. So, they had only spent an hour fighting the Ice King. "This train will be arriving at Shiver Town at one, right?"

"Actually, because of the delay we had back in Mahogany Station, we'll be arriving at two instead." Said Yen.

"Hm… nevertheless, by the time we get there, it will start to get darker and colder. So, Trixie's correct, we will require a place to stay for the night."

"But for now, let's eat." Said Samantha. "We haven't even had breakfast yet."

Teo let out a slight chuckle. "S-She's right about that." With that, everyone decided to have their breakfast and worry about the events later.

* * *

Back in the castle on Freezer Mountain, we find Doofenshmirtz and Zim watching the Super Naughty-Inator being built by Norm and Gir while being assisted with the Ice King's penguins. Doofenshmirtz and Zim smiled evilly until they heard the doors open revealing the Ice King who was covered in leaves and twigs. He walked up to them sighing in annoyance.

"So… how did it go?" asked Doofenshmirtz.

"Uhhh… nnnnot very good." Said Ice King, feeling a bit embarrassed. "I got my butt handed to me."

"Well what about Geoffrey?" asked Zim. "Surely his supreme power would've been enough."

Ice King shown his hands revealing a bunch of dead spiders. Ice King looked as if he was about to cry. "He couldn't do the job either…"

Doofenshmirtz placed his left arm around his shoulder. "Well don't you worry; we'll make them pay for defeating Geoffrey! And trying to ruin Doofmas!"

"How the heck did they win anyway?" asked Zim. "You were surrounded by strong cold winds and blistering ice! You had the advantage!"

"That's the thing." Ice King replied. "There was a giant heat bubble surrounding the train, it blocked the cold and wind."

"But… in order to do that, you need an Illuminator Globe." Said Doofenshmirtz. "And we have the only on-" Doofenshmirtz suddenly realised how. "Santa! He must've put some of the globe's magic into something before we captured him."

"Yeah… but this barrier was bigger than what the Illuminator Globe can do." Ice King replied. "He might've combined the globe's magic with his own."

"Either way, so long as we have our Illuminator Globe and the Naughty Crystals, he can't stop us from conquering the galaxy." Said Doofenshmirtz.

"You know, I still want Earth to be one of my five planets." Said Zim. "I did work hard for it."

"I know but I called dibs… even you should know about the Intergalactic Law of Dibs." Said Doofenshmirtz. "But don't worry, you can do whatever you want with the five planets you pick."

"DIBS ON NEPTUNE!" called Ice King.

"NO FAIR! I wanted Neptune!"

"Now, now Ice King, you wanted girls, not planets." Said Doofenshmirtz.

"Eh I was just joking anyway… but still, would be nice to have an entire planet full of beautiful babes who will serve my every whim."

"Well tell you what, you can pick any other planet you want right after Zim is done picking his five."

"But right now, our main problem are those human brats." said Zim looking furious. "They already foiled us twice and they're on their way here."

"We shouldn't worry too much... even if they make it to Shiver Town; it's a three day hike up Freezer Mountain if you're good at climbing. And there are only five days left until Christmas. And I bet those kids don't know the first thing about climbing, so maybe it'll take them longer." Doofenshmirtz looks up to Norm the robot. "Norm! How long until my Super Naughty-Inator is finished?"

"Should be ready by tomorrow morning. Just in time for muffin hour."

"Excellent!" Doofenshmirtz began to laugh evilly. "Soon my Super Naughty-Inator… powered by the Naughty Crystals, we will make every boy and girl naughty! That way no one will wanna celebrate Christmas! And with our Reverse-Inated Knickknacks making everyone wanna celebrate Doofmas! We will make millions to make our ultimate empire and rule the galaxy… and soon… THE UNIVERSE!" he began to laugh manically

"Um… why are you saying our plan again? We already know what to do." Said Zim.

"I know, but just in case the readers weren't paying attention."

* * *

In Room Four where the kids and Celina the cat were staying, the kids were playing Monopoly while Celina slept on the couch Teo slept on. So far Sabrina and Teo had the biggest advantage for having two Monopolies each, Bowla and Jack had one each, Samantha had one and Mike got thrown into jail again. "That's the seventeenth time!" he shouted angrily.

"Actually, that's the twenty-ninth. You certainly require advancing your mathematical skills." Said Sabrina smirking.

"You certainly require advancing your mathematical skills." Mike said in a mocking tone, he then pointed to Teo. "I bet it's his fault! After all he's the biggest jinx I met, plus his tail is black, meaning he would be a black cat for bad luck!"

"Do you seriously have confidence in that misconception for even an instant?" asked Sabrina.

"Yeah, if anything, he's more like those Lucky Cats you see in Japanese shops." Said Bowla smiling. "Cuz every time I see him, I always feel lucky."

Teo began blushing. "Oh uh… t-thank you Bowla… I'm… always happy to be with you."

Mike made disgusted faces. "Oh, that's real sappy."

"And you wonder why you've never won a girl's heart." Said Sabrina.

"C'mon, I've won your heart with my good looks, right?" asked Mike looking suave.

There was an awkward silence as they looked at Mike's suave face and Sabrina's surprised face. "Excuse me for a minute." Sabrina stood up and walked out of the room and closed the door. The kids waited in silence for a few seconds. But suddenly they all heard a loud high-pitched laughter coming from outside, going from loud roaring to calming down having trouble breathing after a few seconds. Silence filled the area once more and Sabrina walked back in with her calm emotionless look, though with slight tears coming from her eyes. She sat down and faced Mike again. "No."

"Attention passengers, we will arrive at Shiver Town in ten minutes please make sure to bring all your personal belongings and have a nice day."

"Excellent! Our final stop, now we can get to saving Santa." Said Jack.

"Finally, we can kick this Doof-Guy's butt!" exclaimed Bowla.

"And we can get some presents!" exclaimed Mike

"And SWEETS!" exclaimed Samantha.

"W-Won't be easy…" muttered Teo. Everyone looked over to him. "T-Threatening to destroy the train using explosives and a giant spider made up of millions of little ones… what do you think this Doof-Guy might have at his castle?"

"We do not know, we have witnessed what the adversaries were capable of twice… we cannot underestimate them. It is very likely that Zim and Ice King are not ready to admit defeat… and they were serving this Doof-Guy." Said Sabrina.

"Well… the other passengers said they were going to help… let's hope they can help out." Said Bowla.

The train had finally stopped at Shiver Town. The kids all walked out wearing their winter clothing and carrying their belongings, Celina sat on Teo's head as he and the kids walked out with the other passengers, plus Yen and Mandy.

At that point, Sharpfin walked in front of the kids. "We will scale Freezer Mountain tomorrow, meet me at this station here and I'll get us all there in style." With that, he walked off in a different direction, the others who had agreed to help did the same thing except for Trixie, Veronica, Tad, Chad and the Bouncer who stayed where they were.

"Like I said we will pay for anything that you may need." Said Trixie. "We know of a wonderful hotel just west of here called the Crystal Snowflake. It's five-star, we will meet you there. With that she and the others walked off as well.

The kids exited the station to see the town; they felt amazed by the thousands of Christmas lights surrounding the old stone houses, even a giant Christmas tree in the centre of the town. With the sun setting over this town and the giant mountains just past them, the town looked very beautiful.

"This is amazing…" muttered Sabrina.

"So… now what?" asked Bowla.

"Um, I think you said that the letter said that the mayor of Shiver town will help us." Said Teo

"Ok… so, where is he?" asked Mike.

"You're looking for the mayor?" asked a civilian who walked up to them.

"Y-Yes please." Said Teo.

The man pointed to the tall wide building just across the road. "That's his office right there actually."

"Oh… convenient." Said Sabrina.

"T-Thank you." Said Teo, with that the kids all walked across the road and up to the building.

Jack opened the door and the kids all walked into the long hallway. Bowla turned to see the paintings on the left side of the wall, each one was of an old man in a black coat and top hat, but each old man had a different face and a different name underneath. All except for the surname which Bowla muttered. "Scrooge?"

The others went up to the front desk and saw the woman doing some paperwork until she saw the kids. "Can I help you kids?"

"We came here to speak to the mayor." Said Sabrina. "We were informed he could be of assistance to us with our situation."

"I see… hang on." The woman pressed a button near a speaker. "Sir… we have some children here who said you could help them with something…"

"Does one of them have a cat tail?" asked an old man.

"Cat tail?" asked the woman feeling confused, she turned to the kids. Bowla pulled Teo's coat up and his layered trousers down to let his tail free. The woman felt shocked, but kept her composure to answer. "Yes sir."

"Very well. Bring them in."

"Certainly." She turned to the kids. "Mayor Scrooge's office is on the left here."

"Thank you." Said Sabrina, the kids walked to the left door.

Teo opened this door and the kids walked in, there they saw an old man wearing an old worn-out black coat. Bowla saw his face in the last painting they passed. "Good afternoon children… I am the mayor of Shiver Town, Maximillian Scrooge."

"Hiya." Said Samantha cheerfully.

"I had been waiting for you Teo." Said Scrooge.

"Um… y-you have?"

"Of course… Santa Claus had written me a letter saying that he was captured on top of Freezer Mountain and he sent a young courageous boy with a cat tail to save him."

Mike was about to make one of his gloats until Bowla slammed onto his foot making him yelp in pain. "So why does Teo need to speak with you first?" asked Bowla.

"Freezer Mountain is gigantic with non-stop blizzards. Shiver Town has never had a day with no snow, even during the summer we have it… people who are born here have never felt warm weather… because of the blizzards, no one can make it to the top on their own… to believe someone has made it to the top and had claimed the castle. It seems farfetched at first…"

"Well yeah, but Mr Sharpfin said he could help us get there." Said Bowla.

"How will he see where he is going?" asked Scrooge. "It is impossible to see through the blizzards… so I believe the villains who had captured Santa, had also stolen one of the Illuminator Globes."

"What's that?" asked Mike.

"An Illuminator Globe is the only thing that can dispel the snow in a sixty-yard radius. Only two exist and there are the only things that can get anyone up there." Scrooge opened one of his desk drawers and took out a golden key with a silver handle. He placed it onto the table closest to Teo. "This key here will unlock the vault, where the very last Illuminator Globe exists. To the north of here is a museum, speak to the curator, Miles Cratchit, he will lead you to the vault."

Teo slowly took the key to examine it. "Um… t-thank you so much."

Scrooge smiled. "If you truly wish to thank me… save Christmas… it saved the first Scrooge from doing terrible deeds and helped turn this town into what it is… I cannot bear the idea of someone trying to destroy Christmas…"

Teo nodded and the kids began to walk out, but before they did.

"One last thing." The kids turned back to Scrooge. "The vault is in the museum, but it will be no simple task to get to it. Teo… you must reach the vault, alone."

"A-Alone?"

"Yes. It will all make sense once you arrive. Good luck."

Teo nodded and soon they left the building and made their way north to the Museum. Teo had no idea what to expect, he felt nervous, but he knew he could not fail whatever task was to befall him, he simply sighed and hoped he could accomplish the task.


	6. Key to Light

**Chapter 6: Key to Light**

* * *

After a ten-minute walk, the six had found themselves right in front of the Shiver Town museum, much like the rest of the city, it was adorned with Christmas themed ornaments among other decorations, Teo looked down at the key he was holding, then they made their way to the entrance.

"I guess it's a good idea to keep something valuable here." Mike spoke up. "No one will ever think a great treasure is hidden in this snooze fest."

"Incalculable treasures are in every museum." Sabrina replied. "The objects in museums can be priced from thousands to millions."

"Wait? Seriously!?" Mike asked looking surprised. "Man, to keep such good treasures in boring places, these museum guys are geniuses."

Sabrina simple rolled her eyes as she opened the front door for everyone. As they all entered, they saw the interior of the museum was also adorned with several Christmas themed decorations, with the exception of the exhibits, which were all treasures from different parts of the world, as they walked further, a mid-forties man arrived in a business suit.

"My, we don't get that many children here. Welcome to the Cratchit Treasure House. The finest museum in town."

"Guess you must be this Miles Cratchit guy, right?" Bowla asked.

"That's right. Why do you ask?"

Bowla nudged Teo. "Go on."

Teo stepped forward and showed Miles the key. "Um… Mr Scrooge gave me this."

Cratchit's eyes widened upon seeing the key. "I see… so it is time then. Come with me."

The kids soon followed Cratchit through the museum, following him to the third floor, this floor had a 'no access' sign on the door but they passed through anyway. This floor was much darker than the rest, and was completely empty, with the exception to one item.

A thirty-foot long and wide painting on the wall with the bottom touching the floor, unlike the other paintings which were elevated. This painting had a long series of stairs and walkways that snaked and spiralled around with mirrors everywhere, but in the bottom middle was a small white double door with a snowflake engraved in the middle of it, and in the top middle was a snow globe with a lighthouse inside it.

Cratchit turned to the kids. "Here we are."

"It's just a dumb painting?" Mike exclaimed. "Where's this vault?"

"Right here. This painting is the vault."

"That doesn't make any sense." Jack exclaimed. "It's just a fabric painted over with a mixture of colours and pencil markings, it's too thin to contain something like a snow globe."

"It's magic." Sabrina added. "This painting is a gateway to a pocket dimension containing the Illuminator Globe."

Cratchit nodded. "Exactly. Because Illuminator Globes are the only thing to shield anyone from extreme blizzards, and because of hardships in the past that lead to destroying the globes. We kept two of them hidden from the world. One in this painting, and one with Santa Claus."

' _So, Santa had the other Illuminator Globe, when he was kidnapped, the bad guys took the globe too._ ' Thought Teo.

"Why were the globes destroyed?" asked Bowla.

"They contain powerful magic. Two hundred years ago, people discovered the power in them and intended to take the magic for themselves instead of using them to block out snow storms. Many wars happened, and in the end, we chose to hide two and destroy the rest." Cratchit then looked down to Teo. "Young man, what is your name?"

"Um… T-Teo."

"Well Teo, Scrooge gave you the key specifically, correct?" Teo nodded. "In that case, you must be the one to enter this world and reclaim the Illuminator Globe. The world within this painting is an endless labyrinth to all but a pure of heart. If what Scrooge told me is true, that Santa requested you to rescue him, then he knows that only you can enter this maze and come back out triumphally. Are you ready?"

Teo was hesitant at first, but he nodded anyway and stepped forward.

"Why can't we come with him?" asked Bowla.

"As I said before, this world is a maze to all but a pure heart. Even if you went alongside him, you would be separated and lost. Thankfully, the labyrinth is merciful in that those who are lost return to the entrance, but once you leave, you can never re-enter the world. It's for the best Teo goes in alone."

Teo walked up to the door on the painting as Celine jumped off his head and into Bowla's arms, it was flat like the painting, so it didn't look like a real door, but Teo took the key and touched it against the keyhole, then to his surprise, the keyhole began to glow a golden white, and soon, the doors opened up and emerged out of the painting. Teo looked behind him to see the others, seeing Sabrina and Bowla nodding, he gulped a bit, and then walked through the doors and they slowly closed behind him. Despite being inside the painting, he could not be seen at all.

Cratchit turned to the other kids. "I do not know how long Teo will be, but I will keep an eye on his progress."

"Well if he's gonna be a while, then Jack and I are gonna sightsee." Mike responded. "That Trixie girl said she'd pay for everything we want."

"Yeah, she said she'd meet us at the Crystal Snowflake. So, we better head there now." Jack added. Soon he and Mike began to walk off with Samantha following them. Leaving Bowla and Sabrina behind.

Cratchit turned back to Bowla and Sabrina. "If you wish to do something while you wait, I'll make sure nothing happens."

Bowla and Sabrina looked at each other, then back to Cratchit. "If there is nothing we can do to assist Teo, then I believe that it is for the best I make my leave and make preparations for the approaching battle." Sabrina then began to leave. "However, I hope Teo will appreciate my conclusion." As she was leaving, Celina jumped from Bowla's arms and followed Sabrina.

Bowla watched Sabrina leave, she then sat on the ground with her legs crossed. "Well like it or not, I'm staying. That's my little wimp in there. Even though I can't do anything… and there's all sorts of cool shops and places to see… and there's nothing to do here… and I… HECK WITH IT! I'm gonna go sightsee!" With that, Bowla ran off leaving Cratchit behind to watch the painting.

"Somehow I saw that coming." Cratchit then dug into his pocket and began to play on his 3DS. "Alright Dr Mario, I'm so gonna get that high score!"

* * *

The others arrive at the Crystal Snowflake hotel, Bowla, Sabrina, Mike, Jack and Samantha were all in their reserved room, looking just as glamorous as the train if not more, much like their train however, it had two bunk beds and two couches, soon they were handed a small bundle of money from Trixie.

"Here you go, you each get a hundred dollars to use, courtesy of myself, Veronica and Tad and Chad. Now for the record, this is all the money we can give you for shopping, but I will pay for your meals and room service too." She then glared at the kids. "Now don't you dare overdo it! Got it?"

"Understood." Sabrina responded.

Mike soon turned to Bowla. "So, sweetie, wanna grab some dinner with me? I'm a way better dating-guy than Teo."

Bowla walks towards the exit. "Nope, even if you are, I'd never date an ugly beaver."

"Cold." Mike responded quietly.

Soon the others left the hotel, leaving Celina in the room to nap, Bowla immediately made her way to the clothes shop, Mike and Jack walked further down the street to the main square, leaving Samantha and Sabrina on their own.

"So, what are you gonna do?" Samantha asked with that cheery smile on her as usual.

"I am ambiguous." Sabrina responded. "I presume the one and only option is to sightsee aside from preparing for the battle ahead. Am I to comprehend that you will be shopping for more confections."

"Yep." Samantha nodded. "I wanna taste what this town has. And don't worry, I promise not to pillbox any of the sweets."

"IT'S PILFER!" Shouted Sabrina. She then just sighed as she walked off in her own direction. "Senseless idiot."

* * *

Teo continued to travel along this mysterious world, the walls and floors were made of ice but were not slippery at all, the paths all snaked up down and spiralled around several large pillars, with a crystal mist-like sky surrounding everywhere, several mirrors existed in the walls, floors and some just floated without a care, he didn't know how long he had been in this labyrinth, but he continued to walk forward nevertheless, any branching paths in the way, he merely took one of them at random without a single thought, while he hadn't gone through many mazes, it was easer just to pick one at random rather than think about which path is correct, mazes are unpredictable so it saved time not to think.

The area felt cold, but not as cold as it was outside the museum, and there was an incredibly strong sense of loneliness, not a single life for miles upon miles. Teo felt nervous, but for some strange reason, he also felt calm, he didn't know why. But all he knew was to keep going and he would eventually find the Illuminator Globe.

Teo's path lead to inside one of the giant pillars, and upon going inside, he faced a smaller maze in this pillar, he let out a sigh as he began to walk through it with just his instincts and nothing more. ' _I wonder how long is this place, and will I find the globe in time?_ '

* * *

Back in Shiver Town, we find Sabrina looking all over in one of the large malls, going up an escalator, she made her way to the electronics shop, hopefully looking for something that could prove useful for the battle ahead, aside from various DIY tools and homely electronics like Music players and video games, nothing that seemed useful enough to get, she did however notice a Nintendo 3DS that comes with a copy of Pokémon Alpha Sapphire, and she immediately thought of buying it for Teo for Christmas, but she ended up going against it as she doesn't have enough money and she needs to focus on more important essentials. Besides, she got Teo a toy with catnip in it, while not technically a cat, he still enjoyed the toys, and catnip affects him just like regular cats.

She moved away from the isle and looked over to the next one, while Stan did he would give them something for the battle ahead, she would rather be overprepared than be underprepared. She then looked over to see a set of large fireworks. Seeing them gave Sabrina a fascinating idea to use them as missiles. So, she grabbed them along with bottles of soda and packets of Mentos in order to make custom bottle rockets, and finally a bucket to hold them all in, she could've just gotten a plastic bag, but she preferred something sturdier.

As she walked up to the counter and placed them in front of the lady there, she looked at the fireworks and frowned. "Sorry kid, but we cannot sell these items to children unless they are supervised by an adult."

Sabrina felt annoyed, but kept her calm state. "I apologise, but I was requested to buy these for an adult."

"Well that's all fine and good but unless I see an adult buying these, I can't let you have them. The other stuff you can buy no problem. But you'll have to leave the fireworks behind."

"Very well then." Said Sabrina calmly, but deep down she was frustrated. Nevertheless, after purchasing the other items, she placed them in bags except the bucket and moved onto one of the other isles with the stuff in the bucket.

Secretly, she went back to the same isle to get another box of fireworks, with the intention of stealing them. She looked around and noticed no one was watching, and the security cameras were not watching her, so she placed a box of fireworks into the bucket and placed the packet of Mentos and a couple of the bottles on top of the bucket as well in order to hide it, and started to walk towards the exit. But to her dismay, she noticed the exit had alarms on it, if she were to pass through with an unpaid item, it would alarm the staff. While she trusted her own speed and intellect, she had doubts she could get away with the items slowing her down.

She pondered what to do, she then walked away from the exit and into another isle to think of what to do. She began to wonder if it was worth leaving the fireworks behind and just have someone buy them for her, but that would take a while and she needs as much time as she does to prepare further.

She then noticed someone, a late twenties woman in the clothes isles, while no one was watching, and the cameras were away, she began to remove the sensors off the clothes using scissors to simply snip them off, to prevent them from setting off the alarms. A woman stealing so close to Christmas was despicable, but to Sabrina, this was an opportune moment.

After this woman had three coats under her own big fluffy coat to hide them, and a large hat with handbag, she began to make her way to the exit with her stolen goods. Sabrina then carefully walked behind her and once she passed the exit not setting off anything, Sabrina walked through beside her setting off the alarm making a loud blaring noise.

"HEY! STOP!" Shouted one of the security guards, the woman panicked and made a run for it with three security guards chasing her, not paying any attention to Sabrina who had walked out with her hidden fireworks, letting out a small smirk in the process.

"Easy." Sabrina mumbled as she began to walk back to the hotel.

* * *

We find Mike and Jack walking out of the Gift Shop with a small bag of knickknacks each. Jack looked up to the starry night sky with the snow gently falling, giving a small sigh of happiness. "Wow, this place is amazing."

"Yeah, so much cool stuff and lots of snow." Mike agreed. "I'd rather be here than the orphanage."

Suddenly a snowball came from nowhere and struck Mike in the face. He quickly wiped it off his immediately angered face and turned to whoever threw it.

It was a 14-year-old boy, with brown hair and wore the typical winter clothing like everyone else. "Oh! Sorry about that!" He said sarcastically. "I didn't see you there." He then proceeded to throw another snowball at one of the two younger kids who dodged it and ran behind a snow wall.

"HA! HA! Wimps!" The boy then threw another snowball at one of the kids who had his head above the wall at the time.

Suddenly a snowball struck the boy from a distance, he turned to see it was Mike who threw it. "Oh! Sorry about that!" Mike said sarcastically. "I didn't see you there." He then threw another snowball at the boy. "Or there!"

The boy rubbed the snow off his face and growled angrily. "You made a big mistake tiny!"

Mike and Jack placed their bags down and walked up to the smaller kids. "I think you're making the mistake." Said Jack as he began to prepare some snowballs. "Making Mike mad only results in you getting hurt or humiliated, or both."

"You're gonna snowball fight with us?" asked one of the smaller kids. "But Nelson here is super mean."

Mike chuckled. "Please, he's a pushover."

Nelson growled a bit. "So, four on one huh?" Nelson turned behind him. "Jimbo! Kearny! Dolph! Get here now!"

Suddenly three more bullies arrived. One was tall with long brown hair, one was bulky and wore spikes and one had brown hair covering his right eye. They immediately got into positions around the many snow walls along with Nelson.

Jack looked around to see that they barely had any snow walls at all. "We don't have enough cover for four of them."

Mike smirked. "Let's even those odds then."

Jack and the two kids began to throw their snowballs while the bullies threw back, but Mike instead was running around and ploughing through the unoccupied walls destroying them.

* * *

Bowla found herself in yet another clothes shop where she was buying her seventh dress. But she soon came across something else, a red jumper with some excessive long sleeves, she looked at it with disgust at first, but lifted up one of the sleeves seeing just how long it was. "Who in their right mind would wear something like this?"

She looked left and right to see no one was watching, and she grabbed it and walked into the changing rooms to at least try it on.

Couple minutes later and she was now wearing it, her arms only filled up half the sleeves and the rest just dragged onto the floor, she felt unimpressed by the design choice, but as she lifted one of her arms to reach for her bag, until the sleeve itself flew up and landed on top of her arm. Bowla then moved her arm down to see the sleeve flap down again. She did the same with the other arm, and then she got a bit childish and began to wave her arms about having the sleeves flap all over the place while slightly giggling, becoming easily amused by this, she then decided to get it, she took it off and placed it in her bag to purchase.

As she left the shop, she decided to head back to the hotel to put her shopping away since she had a lot, then she was going to do some more later. As she walked down the path however, she noticed Sabrina carrying the bucket with the fireworks, soda bottles and Mentos. "Hey Sabrina! Feeling thirsty and wanna blow stuff up?"

"On the contrary." Sabrina responded. "My reason for purchasing these items is to assign them to become weapons for our battle. Fireworks as standard, but combining these carbonated beverages with Mentos can convert them into homemade bottle rockets."

"Oh… neat."

"Indeed."

Soon came a high-pitched voice coming from up above. "WHEEEE!"

"I would recommend moving thirty centimetres to the right." Said Sabrina.

Bowla did just that just barely avoiding Samantha who fell from the sky, rolled a bit and landed on her feet and began to walk alongside the other girls.

"Thanks." Bowla added.

"Anytime." Sabrina replied.

"Yeah! That was fun." Samantha cheerfully said.

"Did you just fall out of the sky?" asked Bowla.

"Yep." Samantha replied.

"What exactly were you doing?"

"Well… right after I got out of the sweet shop, a guy in a big metal car showed up and told me to get in because I was late. So, I got in. And then he took me to this cool place where there was some stuff and then there was some other stuff. And then I met some new people and they were nice and I was scared of them because they looked mean."

"Why did you get in the car in the first place?" asked Sabrina.

"Oh, the man kept asking me, are you six? You are six, right? And I'm eight now so I said yes, every time. He DID seem pretty confused or maybe he was just confusing, I forget which one. Anyway, me and my new friends went on lots of adventures together. Yeah, we saw stuff on fire, and some destroyed stuff, and some stuff that was birds. But mostly stuff on fire that was destroyed."

"What?" Bowla asked feeling even more confused.

"And then we rode on a roller-coaster that was super fun and went really, really high. And then we met this lady who was old and mean, but she gave me a present, so I liked her. And then I met some other guys that were totally impressed. And when my adventure was all done, they politely dropped me back off here because they are my new best friends. And then I landed back here with my real best friends."

"… Intriguing." Was all Sabrina said. "Well in any case, I'd recommend returning to the hotel before you get into any more escapades like that. Besides, Teo should have accomplished his mission at this point in time."

"Hope so, it's boring without my favourite little wimp." Bowla replied.

* * *

As Teo continued to travel further into the maze of ice and mirrors, he eventually found a large tower in the distance, so he began to make his way to there, this time he thought up what paths to take judging by their directions, if they looked like they were getting closer, he'd take them, because no doubt, this tower was where the Illuminator Globe rests.

After a good thirty minutes of using this method, he eventually found himself right in front of the door to the tower, this tower looked to be made of several square plates made of mirrors, reflecting everything around it, now that Teo thought about it, this tower might have been in sight since he arrived, but the mirrors reflecting everything made it almost invisible from a distance, he was only able to recognise it due to the gaps between each mirror making a square pattern and forming an outline that would be seen closer up.

Teo pushed the large doors open and began to make his way inside, the inside of the tower consisted of several icy stairs and several frozen floral patterns. He began to climb up the stairs, but this time he went onto his hands and feet to do so, just so to avoid the risk of slipping off. He did slip a little, but for the most part, it worked, and he was able to get higher up into the tower.

After climbing the stairs, he made it to the top floor where the only thing that awaited him was another door, but this one was made of mirrors, so it gave a perfect reflection of himself. He began to walk towards the door and prepared to open it, but as he tried to pull the handle, it wouldn't open, so he stepped back a bit and looked around to see if there was anything he could do. He then looked back at his reflection, but to his shock…

The reflection was smiling, then he gave a wave, doing something completely different from his actions. Then in a weird black flash, the reflection began to emerge from the mirror, the split second this happened, Teo immediately jumped back by about six feet.

The reflection immediately changed to an all-black misty version of Teo with bright yellow eyes and mouth. "So, someone finally made it to the tower. It's been ages since the last unlucky victim." Said the reflection in a voice sounding remarkably similar to Teo's but was a bit deeper and echoed.

"Who… who are you?" Teo asked feeling scared.

"I am you of course!"

"B-But… I'm me… you… can't be…"

"Think of me as a copy of you, I know everything about you. Your feelings towards Bowla and Sabrina, the fish you want to eat, and why you came to this tower. You wish to save Christmas, and you need the Illuminator Globe to get you past the blizzards on Freezer Mountain."

Teo was silent, as his shadowed-self prepared his claws to fight. "But if you want to get the Illuminator Globe, you have to defeat yourself! A task most impossible!"

Teo stood straight and looked at his shadowed-self dead in the eyes, and began to think of how he can defeat him, but all his shadowy clone did was keep still with his claws ready, waiting for Teo to attack first. But Teo just stood there thinking and thinking, trying to desperately think of a way to win, but then, it dawned on him.

"Well!?" asked the shadowy clone. "Are you gonna fight or run!?"

Teo took one step forward and spoke up. "You're not me, I'm not fighting myself."

"I am you in exactly every way, you idiot! Minus my way of speaking of course! Now put em up!"

Teo shook his head before speaking again. "If you are me in every way, you wouldn't want to fight me."

"Huh?"

"I don't fight unless I really have to, if my friends are in danger. If you were me, you would have no reason to fight me, you are not protecting someone, no one you know is in danger. But you choose to fight me because you want to protect the Illuminator Globe, but if you were me, then you would give me the globe… because we both know that I only want to use it to help everyone, which is what you would want to do if you were me, and you know I would gladly return it after all this is over. So in the end… if you were me, you would give me the globe, but if you weren't, then you'd be lying about being me, and it would be possible for me to win, when you said it would be impossible because I'd be fighting myself."

The shadowy clone was silent, but then he just smiled with a slight chuckle to him. "And this is why, only one with a pure heart can obtain the Illuminator Globe… however…"

"Huh?"

"I am you in a way. And I can sense that your heart isn't truly pure… you have had thoughts of revenge, a secret desire to just throw your innocence away and do what you want, you have a lot of power, but you purposefully restrict yourself for the sake of being good. And one other thing… if you had the chance, you would've killed Zim and Ice King, and you'd want to do the same with their leader. Deep down, you know that killing a bad guy would result in them never hurting anyone again, but that's not what 'good people' do according to your perspective. Your heart isn't as pure as others think, it has small traces of evil that claws at you from time to time, but this evil is so small, and you've done so much to conceal it with your kindness, that not even Santa Claus himself can sense it."

"So… Santa wouldn't had called me if he knew about this."

"Who knows." The shadow smiled once more. "But one thing is for certain… your heart may be slightly tainted, but it's pure enough to turn back the evil that dares to destroy Christmas. And for that, you are accepted, go through the door and claim the Illuminator Globe."

"T-Thank you."

"Oh, and don't bother returning it, once you leave, the door will close on you permanently, besides, I've got a gut feeling it won't be returned in one piece." Soon the shadow faded away to nothingness, and the door at the end made a loud clicking noise, implying it was unlocked now.

Teo thought about what the shadow said, how his heart wasn't truly pure, given that he's had thoughts of vengeance and wanting to go all out instead of trying to be good, it made sense to him, but regardless, saving Christmas and everyone who would be affected by this so called Doofmas is what he wants to do. Teo then made his way to the door and opened it this time.

There he was greeted by a small room with many snowflake patterns all over the floors, walls and ceiling, but right in the middle was a small pedestal, and on top of it was a small snow globe with a small lighthouse inside of it, Teo slowly walked up to it and picked it up, he felt surprised to feel that this snow globe is quite warm, it almost felt like he could get this thick winter clothing off and still be warm, but he was not ready to test that.

He saw that ahead of him was another door, but this one was identical to the one on the painting, so he wondered if this door would lead him outside, he placed the Illuminator Globe into his pocket and walked towards the new door to open it.

* * *

Mike and Jack continued their snowball fight alongside the two other kids and against Nelson, Jimbo, Kearny and Dolph. Mike had destroyed all but a few snow walls while the two smaller kids ended up building more on their side. Because of Mike's brutality and Jack's precision, they actually had the bullies backed up a bit.

The two smaller kids backed off a bit while throwing snowballs, but Jack suddenly jumped from the wall and threw a much larger snowball directly at Nelson's face, the weight of the snowball actually knocked Nelson onto the ground.

"Ha! Ha! How does it feel to be beaten by Mike's best friend and smartest kid on Mango Island!?"

Nelson quickly got up and with a growl, he suddenly punched Jack in the face sending him down. Mike became shocked by this and immediately charged from his wall towards Nelson who grabbed Jack by the collar readying to punch him again.

"Nerds like you need to know your place!"

Mike suddenly charged in, jumped and threw a punch into Nelson's face making him stumble back by about four feet, dropping Jack in the process.

Nelson rubbed his face seeing that he had a slight nosebleed. "Hey! You made me bleed my own blood!" He shouted to Mike who immediately got into a boxer's position. "Alright! That's it! I'm giving you until tomorrow morning to get out of this town for good! Or else I'll beat you up every hour of every day until you're dead!"

"I've got a better idea!" Mike began to charge forward with his fists ready. "Let's settle this now!"

As Mike got close enough, Nelson tried to throw a punch at Mike, but Mike immediately ducked, swerved to the right and threw two punches into his side and head. Although Mike was half of Nelson's side, he had no problem punching high enough to reach his head.

Nelson tried to throw another punch, but Mike ducked and threw two jabs into his chest and one uppercut. Nelson threw another punch with Mike jumping backwards, Nelson tried to throw another, but Mike jumped backwards again and then retaliated with a jump and a punch right into Nelson's face sending him to the ground.

Mike stepped backwards throwing a few air punches. "Had enough?! What happened to beating me up every hour of every day until I'm dead?! You can't even touch me!"

Nelson slowly got up growling furiously at Mike. He then signalled the other three bullies to join in the fight.

"Four on one huh?" Mike asked. "That hardly seems fair." He then placed one hand behind his back. "NOW it's fair!"

The four charged at Mike while he charged back. He dodged Jimbo and Dolph's punches and quickly threw a punch into Jimbo's stomach sending him quite a few feet back, he then threw another into Dolph's face sending him to the ground. Kearny and Nelson charged towards Mike, but he quickly jumped forward, throwing a punch into Kearny's face sending him a few feet back, dodging Nelson's punch and throwing a wicked uppercut sending Nelson flying back by about three feet. All with one hand behind his back.

Mike then jumped back and decided to use both hands now. "Nah, this is boring! I'm gonna use two hands now!"

Dolph and Kearny tried to punch Mike at the same time, but Mike ducked both of them and threw an uppercut into Dolph, dodged Kearny's second punch and countered with two punches to the chest and one to the face. Then Mike did a quick spin throwing a sideways punch to both Dolph and Kearny at the same time sending them both to the ground.

Nelson and Jimbo both tried to punch Mike at the same time, but this time, one in front and one behind for a pincer movement. But Mike dodged to the side just in time making both Nelson and Jimbo punch each other's fists hurting each other, Mike then jumped towards Jimbo, threw five punches to the chest and a strong uppercut sending him down. Then he quickly moved to Nelson and threw a punch into his stomach sending him back, then Mike threw ten punches all over his body and ended off with a very strong punch to the face throwing him into a pile of snow.

Mike looked around him seeing the four bullies' unconscious. The smug kid then walked back to Jack who was cleaning his glasses. "You ok?" Mike asked actually looking concerned.

"I'm fine, yeah." Jack responded with a smile as he placed his glasses back on.

"Wow, I can't believe you beat them all up." Said one of the smaller kids. "You're really strong."

Mike smirked as he got into a boxer's position. "Well, you gotta be tough where I am, and I'm the toughest there is."

"He's also the only kid who takes his boxing lesson seriously." Jack added.

"That is the individual subject I will compliment you on." The kids looked to see Sabrina approaching them. "Regardless Mike and Jack, Bowla, Samantha and I will be relocating ourselves back to the hotel, I trust you will be accompanying us?"

"Eh. Why not, I've worked up an appetite and dinner's probably gonna be soon." Mike responded as he walked back to where he and Jack put their bags and picked them up.

"Yeah, it's getting late anyway." Said Jack as he took his bags from Mike. Soon the gang began to walk back to the hotel, leaving the two smaller kids behind.

* * *

Back at their room in the hotel, Mike and Jack were playing a board game, Bowla was playing around with her new flappy sleeves jumper, Samantha was eating her sweets, Celina was sleeping and Sabrina was examining the fireworks she stole.

"Hm…" Sabrina mumbled, each firework had a stick at the end to have them stuck into the ground, but she could also use them to aim them with to make them as mini missiles. She looked into the box to see that it had some extra sticks in it, so she had the idea to strap those extra sticks onto them to make them longer, that way she doesn't get burnt from the rocket's flames.

As everyone was doing their own thing, they all jumped at a high-pitched sound with a flash emanating the room, they all looked around in a panic until they saw the light emanating from a painting of a white door in the middle of the room.

In one last flash, Teo appeared out of the painting and fell onto the floor, thankfully his reflexes allowed him to land on his feet, the confused Teo looked around having no idea where he is.

"Teo!? Where the heck did you come from!?" exclaimed Bowla.

"B-Bowla? I-I… I found another door in that painting world."

Sabrina looked up at the painting of the white door. "That door is an exact imitation of the one in the museum. I assume it is some type of one-way exit."

"Did you get the globe?" asked Jack.

Teo dug into his pocket and took it out. "Y-Yeah, here it is."

"So, this dinky little snow globe is gonna keep the blizzards away?" asked Bowla as she took the Illuminator Globe and examined it.

"It is recommended that you do not underestimate enchanted artefacts." Sabrina responded as she gently took the Illuminator Globe. "Mr Sharpfin claimed that he will use his vessel to get us to the top of Freezer Mountain, so I recommend we attach this onto it. We should also inform Cratchit of Teo's success, as he is most likely still waiting for him back at the museum."

"We'll do that after dinner, I'm starving!" Mike interrupted.

"Me too!" Samantha exclaimed.

Sabrina checked the clock on the mantlepiece. "We have about ten minutes up until dinner services will be prepared. So, I agree, Sharpfin and Cratchit can wait."

* * *

A bit later, the kids made their way to the dining area where all six of them were sharing a table once more, Teo and Bowla shared their menus again while Mike and Jack did the same. And soon they all got their meals, everyone's was different from each other's besides Teo who had a different fish meal. Teo looked around to see that everyone they had helped were also here having their own meals, except for the Heavy who brought his own Pizza Sandwiches with him. Teo then looked back at the Illuminator Globe he kept next to his plate, giving off a surprisingly warm feeling, he felt glad to have gotten it, but he also felt a little concerned with what his shadow said, but he simply shook it off and thought to himself, if Santa had asked him to help, then his heart must be pure enough to help.

Soon after everyone finished, they all went back to their rooms to do whatever they want until bedtime. Teo sat on the couch cuddling Celina, Bowla was flapping her sleeves again, Samantha was eating the last of her sweets and Mike and Jack were playing Poker.

Sabrina had just stored her modified fireworks into the bucket. "Finished."

Teo took notice of what she was doing. "Um, finished what?"

"Modifying the fireworks so we can utilise them as weapons. Speaking of which, I must remember to return to Stan, so we can acquire more possible weapons."

"Oh, that's really cool…" said Teo, but then he was interrupted by Bowla who suddenly rubbed his head a lot with the sleeves, a couple seconds later Teo's hair was now puffed up due to the static.

"Ha! I knew it would work!" she then moved back.

Teo tried to fix his hair while talking to Sabrina. "Um, so…what about the fizzy drinks? Were they for Samantha?"

"What?" Sabrina turned to see that Samantha had eaten all the Mentos and drank all the soda.

"Yummy."

"Samantha, you fool! They were not for you!" Sabrina exclaimed.

"S-Sorry, I didn't know, d-did I plastered them?"

"IT'S PILFER YOU-" Suddenly Samantha's stomach growled violently. "Uh oh…"

Samantha suddenly inflated and began to fly around the room like a balloon as the mixture of Mentos and soda launched out of her mouth.

* * *

Later, we find the kids have moved to another room with all their belongings, while the staff cleaned up the previous room. Sabrina came back into the room after cleaning herself, but this time she was dragging Samantha by her tongue using a small pair of plyers, Sabrina looked furious while Samantha was in pain. Sabrina soon released her grip and walked towards her bed.

"Sowie." Samantha muttered with her swollen tongue.

"Spend hours modifying the fireworks, Samantha spends seconds destroying them!" she got her clock out again and placed it on the table between them all. "Hopefully, Mr Stan's belongings will suffice." She sighed before turning to the others. "This time I have set the alarm for five, this is our most important battle and we must attack at the crack of dawn."

"Lame." Mike muttered as he was climbing up onto the top bunk. "H-Hey!" Suddenly Celina jumped from Mike's bed and went onto the couch Teo agreed to sleep on.

"We still have like four days until Christmas, why do we need to be so vigilant?" asked Bowla looking annoyed.

"It is for the best we defeat the adversaries before Christmas. Santa needs time to prepare for the occasion and if we attack at dawn, they will not be as prepared to fight back."

"Makes sense I guess." Bowla huffed a little and went to her bed.

Soon the lights were out, and everyone was asleep, all except for Teo who looked over to the Illuminator Globe on the table next to the clock.

Teo breathed in a little knowing what tomorrow was going to bring. ' _This is it… tomorrow is the battle to save Christmas… if we don't stop them now, this world will never be able to celebrate Christmas ever again._ ' Teo's eyes turned from shy to fierce. ' _I will NOT let that happen!_ '


	7. The Final Battle

**Chapter 7: The Final Battle**

* * *

It was the crack of dawn; it was time for the final battle against the villains. Teo was nervous but also confident, he was nervous as he wasn't sure what to expect, on the other hand, he felt like they had an advantage, because he wasn't going on his own. He was bringing an army.

Teo had placed the Illuminator Globe on the front of Sharpfin's ship before taking off. His ship was large and was shaped like a simple rowboat, but had three large engines and the deck was completely flat, and was painted to look like an angry blue shark. The ship itself blasted through the blizzards at incredible speed, and with the Illuminator Globe on the front, it brought up a huge light which pushed the snow away clearing their view and blocked the icy wind, it kept most of the cold out but not all of it.

Teo looked around to see the crew aboard the ship. Himself and the kids, Celina, the Heavy Weapons Guy holding his massive gun, Ed, Edd and Eddy, Sharpfin who piloted the ship, Inspector Gadget, Luigi, Yen and Mandy. Everyone looked determined to battle, but they all kept an eye out in all corners for any attack.

"It's got titanium mounted twin fourteen-thousand CC engines, with power-cycle liquid radiant cooling deployment!" exclaimed Sharpfin as he steered the ship.

"This ship is super awesome!" exclaimed Mike. "How fast are we going?"

"It can't be calculated in normal metric sum, we're currently travelling at three-times the speed of awesome!"

"AWESOME!" Mike squealed with excitement.

Sharpfin turned to Teo. "How long can this globe keep up this magic heat thingy?"

"I think it's permanent, but Celina said should it get destroyed, then she can use her own magic to keep the barrier for a limited amount of time."

"Alright then! Let's kick this thing into Ultra Turbo Drive!" with that he pulled a lever and the ship began to fly even faster than before.

"I LOVE THIS SHIP!" Screamed Mike.

At the castle on Freezer Mountain, all three villains were watching Kitchen Nightmares on the holographic TV while drinking hot chocolate. "This human hot choco-late is actually quite delicious! I will force the inhabitants of the five planets I conquer to make this delicious beverage non-stop!" said Zim.

"See, isn't it nice to kick back and relax every once in a while?" asked Ice King.

"Oh, I so agree… I mean it's not like those kids who are trying to save Santa will make it here anytime soon." Said Doofenshmirtz. "Like I said it's a three-day hike."

"Tch. Stupid baking woman." Said Zim watching the TV. "If she could not take any form of critics, when why did this stupid woman even bother calling this celebrity chef?"

"Who knows Zim, who knows." Doofenshmirtz replied.

At that point, Norm the robot walked up to them. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news Doofenshmirtz… but we have intruders heading towards the north side of the castle."

All three spat out their hot chocolate at the same time in shock. Doofenshmirtz picked up the remote and changed the channel; there they saw Sharpfin's ship and the crew heading towards them, and the ship was protected by a golden barrier, zooming in, they saw the Illuminator Globe attached to the ship.

"It's those foolish human brats! How did they managed to obtain a ship of such speed and propulsion?!" asked Zim.

"Never mind the ship! Where did they get ANOTHER Illuminator Globe?!" asked Doofenshmirtz. "I thought there was only one!"

"I bet your now wondering why I asked Teo specifically." The four turned to see Santa still in his cage. "Because Teo would've done kind deeds to anyone who needed help, and because of your attacks, he was able to save so many people! And now Teo is going to fight you with an entire army of people he helped!"

Ice King stood up and faced him. "Don't think we're defeated yet, we still have the Super Naughty-Inator!"

"But it's not finished yet." Said Norm. "At their speed, we may not finish it before they arrive."

Doofenshmirtz sighed. "Norm, man the defences, activate every last weapon and robot soldier we've got! I want that ship taken down!" Norm ran off to do so. "Zim, we gotta help the minions build the Super Naughty-Inator! Ice King, keep an eye out on the situation, if they get too close, give 'em the cold reception!"

Ice King flew up to the top of the castle while Doofenshmirtz and Zim ran towards the room where the machine was being built.

Teo and the gang continued their flight towards the top of Freezer Mountain. It wasn't long before a large stone castle could be seen. Gadget's robotic arm from his hat popped out holding a telescope held it in front of his right eye. He studied for a bit before he looked shocked. "TO THE RIGHT!"

Sharpfin immediately flew the ship to the right dodging a massive energy laser. "It seems they foresaw our arrival." Said Sabrina.

The Heavy immediately stood to the side of the ship and began firing his mini gun in the general direction of where the laser came from, explosions could be seen from that area signifying the Heavy had destroyed the weapon.

Suddenly hundreds more smaller lasers shot from all over the mountain making Sharpfin manoeuvre the ship wildly while still going straight for the castle. But at that point, several missiles shot from above the castle aiming towards them. The Heavy was about to move his gun to fire at them, but Bowla jumped forward and shot several fire streams at the missiles blowing each of them up at a distance. But some of the missiles dodged the flames and continued their collision course.

Luigi began shooting green fire balls from his hands while Gadget shot lasers from his two index fingers at the remaining missiles clearing them. But out from the blizzard came several mini jets piloted by penguins which flew towards them firing lasers. But the Heavy and Bowla immediately turned to the jets and fired at all of them sending them down. Heavy turned back to the lasers firing at them from below while Gadget turned his right arm into a rocket launcher and began firing at the new missiles heading towards them. As three of the missiles got close to them, Yen kicked one away, Mandy punched the other and Ed caught the last one and threw it back towards the castle striking the missile launcher, making it explode.

Jet-packed robots began to fly towards the ship shooting lasers from their hands. But they were immediately countered by Bowla, Luigi and Edd using their flames and slingshot. But one of the lasers struck the side of the ship making it spin slightly, and then it got hit by a few more making it spin a bit more and then emit smoke.

"We cannot take much more of this! We gotta get rid of all these now!" exclaimed Sharpfin feeling stressed.

Sabrina pointed up. "Try elevating! If we can at least get out of the laser's line of sight, we will have less attacking us about them too much."

Sharpfin began to fly the ship higher up dodging more lasers in the process. As the lasers stopped firing, the Heavy faced his gun straight ahead and walked up to Luigi and Gadget; the three looked at one another and nodded, then began to fire at the castle. But as they got closer, large beams of ice shot towards them making the ship dodge to the right.

"Ice King? How did he get back here so quickly?" asked Jack.

As Ice King shot ice beams towards the ship. His sidekick Gunter was in one of the turrets firing snowballs wildly. "Quack!" he said. Which translated to "TOP OF THE WORLD MA!"

Once the ship got even closer, everyone grew shocked to see what was surrounding the castle that was hidden in the blizzard all along. Surrounding the castle were more laser turrets, missile launchers, robots and jets piloted by penguins, all of them began to fire at once almost blocking their view of the castle. Sharpfin continued to dodge the attacks while everyone who had range capability shot down the missiles, robots and penguin jets.

"THEY'RE SERIOUSLY DETERMINED TO NOT LET US IN!" Screamed Mike.

"I WISH I BROUGHT SOME SNACKS!" Screamed Samantha.

"There's too many of them!" shouted Sharpfin. "I can't keep this up for much longer!" at that point, the ship took about five more hits and the ship began to slowly go down while moving forward. "We're losing altitude! If we don't get rid of all these weapons now, we're finished!"

Bowla looked around seeing all the attacks; she then looked over to Teo who looked nervous. "Teo! … We're not gonna make it like this! Use your Grand Finale attack!"

"B-But if I use it now, I won't be able to use it against the bad guys!"

"We have no choice! Use it now!"

Teo nodded and stood up straight. He then crossed his arms to look like an X and began to focus. Suddenly he began to glow blue and emit electrical sparks, everyone who wasn't fighting back looked over to Teo in shock. Then the blue light shot into Teo's body and he made a star position.

Unexpectedly… a giant blue blast shot from Teo engulfing the entire ship and began to expand over seventy yards around them and going even further, the turrets and weapons that touched the light immediately exploded, the robots and penguins were forced back by the immense wind, and the lasers fizzed out upon touching it. The Ice King and Gunter immediately ran from their post before the light got close to the castle, but once it did, it created an enormous tremor which shook the entire castle.

Doofenshmirtz, Zim, Gir and the penguin mechanics all stopped feeling the massive tremor, but it soon stopped making all of them look around surprised. "What the heck was THAT?!" asked Doofenshmirtz.

Santa looked out the window from the cage he was in, he simply smiled. "Teo… you've arrived."

The entire area was wiped clean of all machinery and evil, all except for what resided in the castle. Sharpfin began to slowly land the ship in the area just outside the castle; everyone looked over to Teo in absolute shock, all except for the other kids.

"What… was that?" asked Yen. "That blue blast…"

"What exactly are you?" asked Mandy.

Teo slumped down feeling nervous. "I… I don't know…"

"One-day, Teo just unleashed that discharge just as an evil man was about to murder him, the blast not only pushed him back and left everyone else unharmed, it obliterated that man into nothingness." Said Sabrina.

"Well… it looks like we already have the advantage; we'll just use that to get rid of the villains." Said Mandy.

Sabrina slowly shook her head. "Not so… Teo's Grand Finale attack takes a long time to build up, the longer he doesn't use it, the more powerful it grows and distance it covers, but now that he's used it already, it will be at its weakest state and lowest range… we cannot use it against the villains now."

"Well it's not like we had a choice." Said Bowla. "We had way too much coming at us at once… it's not like we really need Teo's special attack anyway, we have an army!"

"How long would it take to make a blast that big anyway?" asked Eddy.

"Um… a-about two months… I think." Said Teo.

"Not like that really matters." Said Sharpfin. The ship finally made it's landing in front of the castle and the crew walked off the ship.

Sabrina picked up a bag from the ship and opened it up, she then took out three different items. "I obtained these weapons from Stan's this morning." She pulled out a grappling hook and handed it to Jack, two knuckle dusters for Mike and a large pole for Samantha.

The crew began to walk towards the castle. ' _This is it!_ ' thought Teo as his eyes grew fierce. ' _It's now or never!_ '

The crew made it to the front door. "Allow me!" said Yen preparing his right leg. He then threw a massive kick towards the doors smashing them from their hinges.

They all ran in shouting "CHARGE!" but they all stopped right in their tracks seeing what was in front of them. Right in front of them were hundreds upon hundreds of the same robots from before, all of them stood perfectly in a line filling up half of the giant room.

"Looks like Teo's blast didn't harm any in the castle." Said Yen.

Mandy looked around to see large icicle beams high above, she then looked to see there were ladders not far from them on both sides of the room. She then turned to Teo and the kids who were just behind her. "You six, take those ladders."

The kids felt confused as they looked at the ladders. "Why?" asked Teo.

"If you use those ladders, and cross across those beams… you can go right over the army and into the next room."

"But… the army…" said Bowla.

Edd turned to the kids. "They won't harm you…"

"Not as long as we can distract them." Said Luigi.

"Santa Claus trusted you with the task to save him… he must have absolute faith in you for a reason." Said Sharpfin.

"So, we will deal with small fry… defeat leaders." Said the Heavy.

The robots activated and faced the crew; they then began to slowly walk towards them. "If we all face them at once, the villains could get away…" said Eddy.

"You saved our lives. Now let us return the favour… go." Said Gadget.

The kids felt surprised by all this, they then nodded. "C'mon guys! For Mango Island! And for Christmas!" cheered Bowla.

Eddy immediately pointed to the robots. "Ed! Muscle!"

"I AM ED! CHEESE OF MACARONI!" Ed immediately charged towards the robots and smashed himself into them, ploughing through them with ease.

"NOW'S OUT CHANCE!" Called Sharpfin.

The crew began to charge towards the robots while the kids ran towards the ladders. Eddy ran ahead of the others. "For our ancestors' ancestors! ATTAAACK!"

Eddy immediately swung both his yo-yos into a bunch of robots sending them back a bit, distracted enough for Yen to charge in and throw a deadly kick towards them sending them flying into more. Sharpfin dove into the ground and began to swim through it with his fin sticking out tripping up the robots; some even got torn by his razor-sharp fin. Heavy, Edd and Gadget kept to the back firing their ranged weapons covering the others. Mandy ran forward and threw a punch which sent a robot flying over some others and crashed into some at the back, while Luigi continually jumped on each of them while throwing green fire balls.

Teo, Bowla, Mike, Jack, Samantha, Sabrina and Celina ran across an icy beam each watching the battle against the robot army. They all continued to run across them and go to the other side; on the other side was a large window which leads to the next room. Jack took out the grappling hook and fired it at the window smashing it to pieces; he returned the hook as they all arrived at the edge. Unfortunately, the drop was at least thirty feet and there was no way to get down.

But suddenly Celina began to run, creating a trail of light going downward. The kids immediately followed it until they reached the floor. Jack looked around "Ok, now we gotta find Santa."

Celina meowed loudly and pointed to the centre of the room. The kids looked in that direction to see a tall cage made of metal and in that cage, was a tall fat man with a white beard and a red coat and hat. "It… it's Santa Claus!" exclaimed Bowla.

The kids immediately ran up to the cage seeing Santa himself who gave a smile. "I am so glad you accepted my request Teo."

"I… I'm so glad we got to meet you." Said Teo.

"But I'm afraid we must be quick. You see the ones who have captured me are planning on destroying Christmas."

"We are already aware." Said Sabrina. "Something called Doofmas, if I am correct?"

Santa nodded. "Right." He points to a large door behind him. "Behind that door is a weapon which will help them in doing so… it is powered by Naughty Crystals."

"Naughty Crystals?" asked Mike. "Those things that Wallace guy buried?"

"What?! Abraham didn't… n-never mind. They found a way to utilize its energy into the machine, they plan to destroy Christmas and replace it with Doofmas by making every boy and girl naughty. Even if you were to set me free, Christmas will still be ruined for everyone if they unleash their machine."

"So, we gotta destroy it?" asked Jack.

"Don't worry, we'll make sure to break it and save Christmas!" exclaimed Bowla.

"I THINK NOT!"

Suddenly the cage began flying up, Celina immediately jumped into the cage with Santa. Then at that point, Dr Doofenshmirtz himself flew into the room in a small robotic pod with thrusters, Norm the robot then ran in right beside him, the Ice King flew in from the other side with Gunter on his back, he jumped off holding a small bazooka, then Zim entered the room through a window using his metallic spider legs, Gir then flew in with a tiny jetpack.

Bowla turned to the scientist. "You must be Dr Doofa-whatchamacallit!"

"The name is Heinz Doofenshmirtz! But your inaccuracy is beside the point… you know I gotta hand it to you, for someone who isn't a platypus in a fedora you made it pretty far, and you defeated both Ice King and Zim, they're pretty tough so I'm quite surprised at your skills."

"Um… what's a platypus?" asked Samantha.

"What's a fedora?" asked Mike.

"NEVER MIND THAT!" shouted Zim. "You have been thorns in our sides for too long foolish human fools! For that we will destroy you!"

Suddenly a giant golden light emanated the area making everyone look around. "Kids, it me Santa! I'm using my magic combined with Celina's to keep the place heated up, it's not perfect, but it should be enough to help you!"

Teo felt the warmth; he knew why they did that. Teo immediately threw off his jacket, scarf, gloves and hat freeing his movement more. He then got onto his hands and feet readying to pounce like a cat. "Let's do this!"

The kids charged "For Christmas!"

The villains charged as well. "For Doofmas!"

Teo immediately slammed himself into Doofenshmirtz pod throwing him back, but he began to fly up with him clinging onto it, he was about to ram into the wall at high speed, but Teo jumped off in time making Doofenshmirtz hit the wall smashing it. Teo landed on his feet perfectly, but jumped back as Ice King shot a beam of ice towards him missing. Teo then ran to a pole and started climbing it super-fast with Ice King flying after him.

Norm chased Samantha using his arm which turned into a cannon shooting green energy orbs at her. But Samantha dodged them by using her round belly to bounce around; Gunter immediately jumped in front of her and fired a snowball from his bazooka as Norm fired another green energy ball. Samantha bounced to the right making the snowball and energy ball pass one another hitting Gunter and Norm.

Mike and Jack both fought Zim. Zim slammed one of his metal legs making Mike and Jack jump to the side, Mike grabbed one of the legs and slammed it down making Zim fall to the ground too, he quickly got up and shot a laser beam from his gun, but Mike pulled the metal leg up blocking the laser. Jack then jumped off of one of the other legs and slammed his feet onto Zim's stomach. Zim let out a massive cough of pain before quickly getting back up. He continued to slam his metal feet and shoot his laser at the two, but Jack got a distance and fired his grappling hook aiming for Zim's foot, but aimed it a bit higher up by mistake hitting Zim where no male wants to get hit, human or not.

Sabrina continued to dodge Gir's rocks which he was firing from a slingshot which came out of his head. Once Sabrina had enough time, she immediately launched a large extendable boxing glove from her sleeve striking Gir's head making him fall onto his back. "Ooo. Nice Ceiling!" Sabrina quickly returned the glove and shot a grappling claw from her other sleeve which grabbed Gir by the legs and threw him towards Bowla who threw a punch sending Gir flying over Sabrina hitting the Ice King just before he could shoot at Teo. His distraction was long enough to let Teo jump onto Ice King's face and sink his claws and teeth into him making him flail about trying to get him off.

Doofenshmirtz charged forward shooting lasers from his pod towards Bowla and Sabrina, but Bowla shot a huge stream of fire towards him blocking the lasers. But Doofenshmirtz quickly shot up to avoid the flames, but as he flew up, one of Gunter's stray snowballs struck him sending him down into the flames. "HOT! HOT! HOT!" he screamed as he shot back up into the air. Norm continued to shoot green energy balls at Samantha, but she continued to dodge them, she then smacked one back with her pole sending Norm back causing him to land on Zim who was ready to shoot Mike and Jack.

"GET OFF ME YOU USELESS PIECE OF SCRAP METAL!" Zim shouted. He looked up to see the smug Mike and Jack, the two were about to attack the downed Zim, but Ice King immediately shot a beam of ice towards them making them jump to the side, Ice King finally got Teo off of his face and threw him to Gunter who prepared his bazooka at Teo, but before he could fire, Bowla shot a huge stream of fire at him sending him into a wall completely burnt. Teo landed on his feet perfectly and noticed Doofenshmirtz about to shoot another laser at him, but Teo acrobatically dodged and landed on the glass part of his pod, he then stuck his claws in and slowly slid down making his claws scratch the glass making a loud ear-piercing screeching noise making Doofenshmirtz cover his ears in agony.

Gir fired rocks from his slingshot again towards Jack, but he dodged and shot his grappling hook at Gir which latched onto his head, Jack then began to spin him around. "WHEEEEE! I LIKE HURLING!" Jack spun Gir towards Mike who spun his fist rapidly to build up momentum, he then swung a powerful punch at Gir sending him flying over the room and hitting Ice King in the back of the head. The Ice King got up and threw Gir towards Mike and Jack, but he distracted himself long enough to let Sabrina shoot her grappling claw towards him and right up where the sun doesn't shine, making him squeal loudly as he flew high up into the air.

The battle between the kids and villains continued until a sudden loud siren filled the room making everyone stop. They all looked towards the giant door seeing a red light above it. Then the door slowly opened and out came a massive tank with jet thrusters at the side and helicopter propellers on top and on bottom. And attached to the back was a giant glass pod filled to the brim with black rocks with red cracks all over them. Doofenshmirtz smiled evilly. "It's the Super Naughty-Inator! It's been finished!"

"That's the machine that can turn kids' naughty?!" exclaimed Mike.

Doofenshmirtz laughed menacingly as he flew his pod over to the top of it and attached itself into the centre just behind the cannon. Then the machine began to fly up hovering just above the crowd. "Behold! The Super Naughty-Inator! With this machine! I can make every boy and girl in the entire world naughty! Including you lot! So, no one will wanna celebrate Christmas ever again!" he continued to laugh menacingly as he pointed the cannon up into the sky. "SAY GOOD BYE TO CHRISTMAS KIDDIES!" The front of the cannon began to glow red as the Naughty Crystals in the glass pod began to shake and glow too.

"If that thing fires we're all done for!" exclaimed Teo.

Jack prepared his grappling hook but Zim destroyed it with his laser gun. Bowla prepared to breathe fire but Ice King immediately shot a beam of ice at her, freezing her mouth shut, she began to scratch at the ice. Sabrina prepared her boxing glove, but Ice King launched another beam of ice freezing her arms together. Teo leapt forward but Norm grabbed him by the back of his collar and kept him in the air. Mike threw his knuckle dusters, but Gunter jumped up and caught them.

Doofenshmirtz laughed evilly again. "You'll never stop my Super Naughty-Inator!"

Samantha began to think, but then she realised something, she dug into her pocket and took out the plastic duck. "Yes! I still have it!"

They all turned to her. "You still have that imprudent duck!?" exclaimed Sabrina. "How is that going to benefit us!?"

"Because it's made out of PLASTIC!" Samantha shouted as she threw it towards the Super Naughty-Inator. Zim and Ice King began shooting at the duck, but all their shots kept missing, Gunter and Gir jumped for it, but missed also, Norm reached for it with his free hand but just missed it as well.

The plastic duck continued its flight and landed on the Super Naughty-Inator, striking the conveniently placed and unnecessarily built Self-Destruct Button. The machine stopped preparing to fire and began to shake while a siren noise filled the area. Doofenshmirtz looked around and then faced the audience. "Raise your hand if you saw this coming."

The Super Naughty-Inator made a massive explosion sending everyone flying back. Doofenshmirtz however flew upward screaming before falling back down into the giant pile of Naughty Crystals, he fell through them becoming covered in them. There was a strong silence soon after as they all walked towards the pile.

"Um... Doctor D... you ok?" asked Ice King.

In a matter of moments, all the Naughty Crystals began to turn pure black like coal, and crumbled into tinier pieces, leaving only Doofenshmirtz lying on the remains of the Super Naughty-Inator.

Mike took a step forward looking smug. "How does it feel to lose to my might, huh?"

Doofenshmirtz growled quietly, but he dug into his inside pocket and took out a small device and pressed the button on it. "Plan B!"

Suddenly the entire castle began to shake violently, Ice King took Gunter and flew upwards, while Zim climbed the walls with his metal legs with Gir flying with him, Norm's legs turned into jets, grabbed Doofenshmirtz and flew up.

The shaking caused the cage Santa and Celina were in to fall and smash on the ground releasing them, so Santa picked up Celina and ran to the others. "EVERYONE OUT!" shouted Sabrina and the gang began to run towards the door.

They slammed it open into the next room to see the others had finished off every robot. But were looking around confused as the castle still shook, then suddenly floors and walls began to move like giant blocks, so they all ran out along with the kids and Santa.

As they all ran out, they saw the castle was changing shape and flying up. Meanwhile Doofenshmirtz and the others entered a smaller room with a control panel, he sat in the middle seat while Zim and Ice King sat in the two other seats, with Gunter, Gir and Norm all staying back.

"If we're not going to rule the Galaxy with marketing strategies and Naughty Crystals, then we'll take it by force! Norm! Activate the Illuminator Globe!"

"Certainly sir." Norm moved to a lever and pulled it. Several wires around it began to glow, leading towards a glass box with the second Illuminator Globe inside of it. It soon began to glow a violent red upon reacting to the energy distributed into it.

Everyone outside looked in shock to see that the entire castle had transformed into a giant castle-like robot that glowed a golden aura.

"Illuminator Globes contain extremely powerful magic! Combining it with out intellect and incredible talent with machine creation! BEHOLD! THE KING CASTLE!"

Doofenshmirtz laughed manically as the King Castle and began to walk down the mountain, stepping over everyone. "Let's start our conquest with Shiver Town!"

"Shiver Town doesn't stand a chance!" exclaimed Sharpfin.

"I don't even think we could!" exclaimed Yen.

"All this time, they had a back-up plan!" Sabrina exclaimed as Mike smashed the ice on her hands and on Bowla's mouth.

Santa dug into his coat and pulled out a small device and pressed the button on it, suddenly a bright light shot from one of the windows from King Castle and landed right in front of them, it was a large red sleigh with a giant bag in the back.

"Santa's sleigh!" Exclaimed Mike.

Santa then looked down to Teo. "Teo… if anyone can stop him it's you… take my sleigh."

Teo's eyes widened at what he said. "W-What?"

"You are different from everyone else. You have something special inside of you, and only that can stop them. I am trusting you with this. Will you save Christmas?"

"O-Of course." Teo immediately walked up to the sleigh feeling nervous, he slowly climbed into the front and looked around the console seeing a big red button, and a Nintendo Game Cube controller.

Santa walked up to him. "That red button turns my sleigh on. And use the controller to steer it." Teo nods. Santa then placed his hand not far from Shapfin's ship, and the Illuminator Globe attached to it flew off and into his hand, he then placed the Illuminator Globe next to Teo. "To protect you from the cold and wind. And perhaps… for something else."

"I'm going with you too!" said Bowla, but Santa placed his hand in front of her.

"I'm sorry Bowla. But Teo must do this alone."

"But why?"

"Despite what help you can be and if Teo wants your help, you will only serve as a burden. Trust me on this."

* * *

Near the bottom of the mountain, the King Castle got closer to Shiver Town while the trio were laughing evilly. That was until they turned to the right and noticed something heading towards them and fast, it was Teo riding the sleigh, being pulled by reindeers made up of light. The sleigh went even faster turning into a comet of light, colliding into King Castle's face sending it flying far over the town and landing in the large open area on its back. They quickly got King Castle up.

"HEY! Who dares strike our unstoppable might!?" Shouted Zim. They looked up to see Teo in the sleigh flying overhead. "I should've known! fine then! prepare yourself for Mortal Combat!" shouted Ice King. And the three began to use the controls again to fight.

Teo turned the sleigh around readying to strike again. But King Castle quickly fired a giant blast of energy from its chest which Teo immediately swerved to the side to dodge, he continued to go straight forward, this time the reindeers of light began shooting lasers from their red noses all striking King Castle who placed its arms in front of it to block the hits to its face. It then swung both its arms in an attempt to hammer Teo, but he went into comet speed and shot upwards dodging the attack. King Castle looked up to see Teo, then it unexpectedly forced two giant cannons from his back and started firing white energy beams.

Teo noticed the beams and turned the sleigh to the left dodging one of the beams, then a quick tailspin to dodge the other, and then he turned the sleigh around to go downwards. He put the sleigh into comet speed and started shooting the lasers again as he dodged King Castle's own ones. Teo got close enough for a full force charge on its forehead, but King Castle immediately opened its mouth and shot forth a giant golden blast of fire with a burping sound to it, Teo dodged to the right just in time and had the sleigh slam itself into its right arm causing King Castle to fall back and hit the ground hard.

Jet propulsions forced King Castle back onto its feet, Doofenshmirtz growled as he began pressing more buttons. King Castle then shot its golden blast attack again towards Teo, but he dodged it once more. Teo turned around again and shot more lasers at King Castle, it then began to shoot lasers from the cannons on its back as it turned its fingers into mini guns shooting smaller lasers. Teo continued to dodge them but was having trouble keeping up.

"They've got more weapons than Bowla's dad!" exclaimed Teo.

Teo got closer after dodging more lasers, he then done a 360-spin going upward which shot a massive arrow shaped energy blast which struck King Castle's left knee making it fall slightly. Doofenshmirtz tried to get King Castle back onto its feet, he looked ahead, to see Teo going comet speed again; he slammed himself into King Castle's stomach pushing it several miles back, then he shot upwards upper cutting it into the air and sending him onto the ground hard. Teo flew higher up as he watched King Castle get up.

"This is getting us nowhere!" growled Ice King.

"This fool will soon know our wrath!" Zim exclaimed. "Keep firing!"

"No! We need to rethink our strategy!" Doofenshmirtz added.

Teo flew back down readying for another charge attack going comet speed once more, King Castle continued to fire lasers from his cannons on his back but Teo dodged them all too well. He was about to ram into King Castle's face, but he suddenly disappeared. Teo stopped to look around. "What?! Where'd he go?!"

"BEHIND YOU!" Teo looked behind him to see King Castle, with no time to move, it immediately slammed its hands together smashing the sleigh to pieces and Teo began to fall along with the bag of presents. "NOT SO TOUGH WITHOUT YOUR LITTLE TOY NOW ARE YOU!?" Zim exclaimed.

"The Evil Buddies For the Win!" Ice King exclaimed.

Teo continued to fall while screaming, that was until he saw something coming close to him from above, it was the Illuminator Globe. He then remembered it was the one Santa mentioned and quickly grabbed it, he looked in front of him to see King Castle, he then looked down to see he was several miles high and still falling. "Boy do I hope this works!" he clenched his fist and suddenly punched the Illuminator Globe so hard the glass smashed, and a golden magical aura began to flow out of it and encircle Teo's arm and soon his entire body.

King Castle immediately created a giant golden baseball bat into his right hand and prepared to swing it. "Time to knock you out of the park! You know, like a baseball!" exclaimed Doofenshmirtz. Just as King Castle swung the bat, Teo let loose a massive blast of golden light. The bat struck Teo, but it smashed into pieces leaving Teo unharmed. "WHAT?!" all three shouted.

They all took a closer look and saw that the Illuminator Globe was gone and Teo was glowing golden with sparkles emitting from him, what was more shocking was that he was flying. "I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU'RE DOING THIS, BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER! DIE ALREADY!" Zim screamed as he, Doofenshmirtz and Ice King prepared to attack further.

King Castle threw a punch as Teo flew towards it, not only did Teo block the punch but he punched his own fist back destroying the arm all together, then Teo flew faster than the sleigh and slammed into King Castle hundreds of times a second almost everywhere, Teo grabbed the King Castle by the stomach and began fly up into the air with all three of them screaming, going faster every second with more pieces of King Castle being destroyed. Teo then swung his tail into it sending it flying further up, Teo then flew up past King Castle who turned around from the wind Teo made with his incredible speed.

Teo then shot down like a rocket into King Castle's chest pushing it down at high speeds heading towards another mountain with the trio screaming. They landed on the mountain creating a giant mushroom shaped explosion covering the sky for miles. It was the perfect beacon for Sharpfin who flew his ship with the crew, with Celina providing resistance to the cold.

"What the heck happened?!" asked Mandy.

"Illuminator Globes contain powerful magic. Teo absorbed the magic and used everything to win the fight" Said Santa chuckling.

Sharpfin landed his ship not far from where the blast was made. There they all saw Doofenshmirtz, Ice King, Zim, Norm, Gunter and Gir looking semi-conscious surrounded by the remains of the King Castle. Teo on the other hand was fully awake as he looked down on them.

"Teo's ok!" said Bowla looking more than pleased.

"Teo had something no one else had, the mind of a human, the reflexes of a cat, and a heart of gold. Only he would've been able to react and counterattack everything the Evil Buddies threw at him." Santa began tweaking his beard chuckling. "Both Illuminator Globes are destroyed, but honestly, I think it's for the best, they're too powerful for what they were built for to begin with, better destroyed than in their hands. Plus, with the Naughty Crystals destroyed, a threat like this will never happen again."

* * *

We find everyone back in Shiver Town. Doofenshmirtz, Zim, Ice King, Norm, Gir and Gunter were all tied up with wrapping paper and were each in large festive decorated cannons. All of them glared at the crew, especially Teo who stepped back feeling nervous.

Santa walked up to the cannon plunger looking smug. "Well you six, you've been reserved into my super naughty list for eternity. And don't even think Christmas is ruined, I can rebuild my sleigh in seconds, which by the way, you lot are paying for anyway!"

"Whatever! We don't need Naughty Crystals or an Illuminator Globe to ruin Christmas! We'll just do it the old fashion way!" said Doofenshmirtz.

"Or we can destroy you, that way no one can have presents!" said Zim

"We haven't lost yet, we'll make a comeback!" said Ice King.

Santa chuckled and placed his hands firmly on the plunger. Then he glared menacingly at them. "Staying in that cold damp cage isn't good for my back, this is for trapping me and trying to destroy Christmas! HO! HO! HO! YOU BIG DORKS!"

Santa slammed the plunger down making the cannons fire off the villains high over Freezer Mountain with them screaming. "CURSE YOU TEO THE CAAAT KIIIID!"

Everyone cheered as party poppers went off and music started playing. Teo too cheered until Bowla ran up to him, hugged him tightly and gave him a big kiss on the lips, as she let go, Teo looked dizzy as he smiled, blushed and began purring like a cat.

Mike and Jack tapped their glasses of coca cola as they smiled. "Ok… I hate to admit it." Mike turned to Teo. "But Teo kinda did an awesome job…"

Jack was surprised at first, but then he smiled. "That's the first time I've seen you being nice to him."

"What the heck. It's Christmas." Mike then grabbed Jack by the collar. "But if you tell anyone that, I'll beat the crud outta you."

"Ok." Said Jack smiling.

Sabrina looked over to Samantha playing with her plastic duck, she sighed while rolling her eyes. She then placed her hand on Samantha's shoulder. "Samantha?"

"Yes?"

"I… I owe you one… if it was not for your imprudent little plastic duck just so happening to strike a self-destruct button, we might not have been victorious."

Samantha chuckled. "Aw… thank you." She looked at her duck, then back to Sabrina. "You know what, why don't you have it?"

Samantha gently placed the plastic duck into her hands. "R-Really? Are you sure?"

"It is Christmas… plus you'd probably pottery'd it anyway."

"IT'S PILFER! P-I-L-F-E-R! PIL-FER!" Sabrina rubbed her head angrily. "Seriously! Why do you keep saying such a simple two-syllable word wrong every time?!"

Samantha chuckled. "Because… it annoys you."

Sabrina had a dumbstruck expression, she then slapped her forehead. "You have been doing this on PURPOSE!? The entire time?! You were doing this on purpose?! JUST TO ANNOY ME?!"

"Well yeah… I learned from the best."

Sabrina sighed in an irritated tone, but then she calmed down and smiled at Samantha. "You know what…? You know what…? Heh… good job."

Samantha placed her hand over Sabrina's shoulder. "Thanks." Sabrina placed the plastic duck into her sleeve.

Teo looked over to the celebration from a distance. He saw Eddy and Trixie holding hands looking up at the Christmas Tree, Yen and Mandy with their arms over each shoulder watching the fireworks, Sharpfin having a drink with Heavy, Luigi and Gadget, and everyone else having so much fun. Teo smiled knowing he made so many people happy, he soon felt his left hand being held, he turned to his left seeing Bowla smiling.

"You know what Teo… despite being such a wimp and a cry baby… you're pretty dang awesome!"

"T-Thank you Bowla…. And Merry Christmas…"

"Merry Christmas Teo." Bowla gave Teo another kiss in the cheek, the two then continued to watch the party. Teo sighed with relief, his mission was complete; he saved Christmas and defeated the bad guys. Teo felt as if this was going to be the best Christmas ever, he knew it had to be, going on this adventure proved to be, he smiled continuing to watch the party.

* * *

We find the somewhat burnt Evil Buddies in a local pub several miles from where they launched, Doofenshmirtz, Ice King and Zim all sat at the bar table while Norm, Gir and Gunter played Poker in the background.

Doofenshmirtz sighed. "All that work, and we got beat by a toddler with a cat-tail."

"Well…" Ice King let out a sigh too. "With how many heroes there are in the world, I don't think King Castle would've lasted long anyway."

"But sheesh." Zim said angrily. "It took so long building King Castle, getting those Naughty Crystals and the Super Naughty-Inator. And we lost to someone who wasn't even a super hero."

"Here's how I see it." Ice King added "At least we didn't get globally humiliated, only one town knows of our defeat."

"Yeah. And we've still got Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc, I can just build something bigger and better." Doofenshmirtz added.

Zim nodded. "And my Lab."

"And my castle with my penguins." Said Ice King. He then lifted his pint up. "You know what, we may have lost, but I'd rather not lose with anyone else but you guys. Merry Doofmas."

"Merry Doofmas." Everyone said as they tapped their pints together, and then began to drink them.

* * *

The end


End file.
